This page includes resources that look at the assembly of airplanes and manufacture of parts with an eye to business, and not on the technical side of designing and building aircraft. We are not including much for particular companies like Boeing, Airbus, Grumman, Curtiss-Wright, Lockheed Martin, Embraer, Bombardier, etc., so if you are interested in researching companies, the Doing Company Research and Doing Historical Company research guides listed below will provide tips and sources.

The material included here is for those doing historical as well as current research. What has been included is more general or an historical overview, though this guide is not about the history of flight. We have included a few titles that provide an overview of the history of aviation and a few others from specific years as a way to see the changes in the industry. If you are interested in analysis at a specific time period you can search the catalog by doing a subject search on "Aircraft industry--United States" and sorting by date.

We did not include specific market research reports from firms like Frost & Sullivan and DMS/Defense Marketing Service, nor the many sources for current and older design-related titles, because the engineering and design of airplanes and air systems could be its own guide. However, a few have been included as a way to understand the industry at a particular time, especially if they cover topics that may be good for background information.

Other sections of this guide important for researching airlines and airline part manufacturing are the ones looking at statistics and trade literature. Many statistical sources cover all aspects of aviation from manufacturing to airlines and airports, so we have a separate page with statistical sources, though there may be some sources below that do have statistical data. Trade periodicals will also be important and more detailed coverage of that is in Periodicals & Trade Literature page of this guide.

Lastly, a lot of government data and some databases use code systems to report data. Below are the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes which are currently used by the Census Bureau, as well as the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Codes which were use by Census until the advent of the NAICS codes if you need to look historically.