Commercial Aircraft Manufacturing Industry Competitors

Bombardier Aerospace is getting more and more people into its airplanes. The Bombardier division makes small (Learjet), medium-large (Challenger), and super-large/long-range (Global) business jets; CRJ regional jets and Q Series Turboprops; and amphibious aircraft....

A fly-by-night-and-day outfit, Cessna Aircraft is one of the most famous names in small planes. A subsidiary of Textron, the company manufactures business jets, utility turboprops, and small single-engine planes. Best known for its small prop planes, Cessna is also a leading maker of business jets; it makes nine variations of its popular Citation jet....

The Russians launched Sputnik in 1957; it was only a year later that Lockheed Martin built the US's first communications satellite. Today, Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems still makes telecommunication, scientific, and environmental satellites....

A century after Wilbur Wright attained powered flight, Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites made the first privately funded supersonic manned flight. In May 2004 the company's SpaceShipOne reached the lower levels of space (64 km above Earth), and in June it reached outer space (100 km)....

Sino Swearingen Aircraft builds the SJ30-2 Twin Jet, a six-passenger, two-engine business jet with a top speed of some 560 mph and a range of about 2,500 nautical miles. The SJ30-2 was certified by the FAA in 2005, and deliveries began in 2007. Major components of the aircraft are made in Martinsburg, West Virginia; assembly takes place in San Antonio....

The weather report you watched on your satellite TV system -- and the weather data that the report was based on -- might both have come to you courtesy of Space Systems/Loral satellites. The company designs and manufactures weather and communications satellites, subsystems, and payloads....

Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) has a learned approach to making satellites. The company designs and builds small communications and scientific satellites. SSTL has mission design, satellite platform, payload development, spacecraft operation, and data analysis expertise, so the company can take a project from the drawing board through to completion....

Airbus North America Holdings, the US-based arm of France's Airbus S.A.S., serves the company's important US and Canadian customer base. Historically the world's #2 aircraft maker, Airbus is giving Boeing a run for its money....

Dare you imagine 550-800 people in one airplane? Airbus, which vies with Boeing to be the world's #1 commercial aircraft maker, is betting that airlines will love its huge double-decker A380 (first flight completed in 2005; first plane delivered in 2007) for hub airports....

Look, up in the sky -- an American Blimp! Much slower than a speeding bullet, and unlikely to be mistaken for a bird, a plane, or Superman, American Blimp's helium-filled airships have nevertheless found a market niche as bearers of advertising messages (the A-60 series) and also of surveillance equipment (the Spector series)....

Bell Helicopter Textron is betting on tilting. A subsidiary of Textron, the company makes commercial and military helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft. Bell's commercial helicopters seat up to 15 passengers and include models designed for transport, emergency medical services, and search and rescue operations....

Boeing's Commercial Airplanes unit may be less exciting than its Integrated Defense division, but it's more practical to fly home for Christmas in a 747 than an F-15. Boeing Commercial Airplanes -- which has fallen behind Airbus as the world's #1 maker of commercial airliners -- makes planes that seat from 50 to more than 500 passengers....

Bombardier makes the goods to get people moving. Its Bombardier Aerospace subsidiary is the world's #3 maker of civil aircraft behind Boeing and Airbus; the #1 regional aircraft maker (CRJ and Q series), ahead of Embraer; and one of the two largest makers of business jets (Global, Challenger, and Learjet), just behind Gulfstream....

Cirrus Design enables its customers to reach the clouds, be they cirrus, cumulus, or stratus. The company manufactures the SRV, SR20-G2, SR22, SR22-Turbo, and SR22-Turbo GTS single-engine, four-seater, piston-powered aircraft. Prices range from about $214,000 for a base model SRV to $532,000 for a fully-loaded SR22- Turbo GTS....

Dassault Aviation keeps corporate leaders flying high in its Falcon family of business jets. Luxury jets account for the bulk of the company's fortunes, with Falcon making up more than 60% of sales. Dassault's lean and mean military aircraft, such as the Mirage and Rafale jet fighters, account for much of the remainder....

Eclipse Aviation hopes to obscure the competition with its Eclipse 500 jet. The company makes a six-passenger plane which is powered by two Pratt & Whitney turbofan engines. Eclipse Aviation hopes its economical jets will become the backbone of a national air limousine service designed to offer private jet travel to passengers at fares that are competitive with conventional full-fare airline ticket prices....

Planes soar off production lines more easily than Embraer-Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica flies off the tongue. Better known as Embraer, the company is world's #4 aircraft manufacturer, behind Airbus, Boeing, and Bombardier; Embraer ranks behind only Bombardier in regional aircraft....

A European (Leonardo da Vinci) sketched the first helicopter more than 500 years ago. Nowadays, Eurocopter -- a subsidiary of European Aeronautic, Defense and Space Company (EADS) -- builds a range of military and civilian helicopters that are anything but sketchy....

Daimler Aerospace (DASA, Germany), Aerospatiale Matra (France), and Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA, Spain) combined to form the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS)....

Prom-goers may prefer limos, but grown-ups who've really made it -- executives, celebrities, and heads of state -- arrive in jets (and rarely rent tuxes). Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, a General Dynamics subsidiary, is the largest maker of private jets in the world, ahead of Bombardier....