L'industrie aérospatiale

Published in the "Que sais-je?" series (no. 742), this book by engineer Jacques Lachnitt surveys the aerospace industry of the early 1970s. After a history of aircraft manufacturing, it describes production techniques (materials, forming, machining, assembly), industrial organisation and international cooperation, Concorde, Airbus, the Europa launcher, the Symphonie satellite. One chapter analyses the sector as a research-intensive "leading-edge industry." The third part reviews, country by country, the world's main aeronautical, space and ballistic firms and products: France, the United States, the USSR and some fifteen other nations.