The U.S. economy is generally considered to run on free market or laissez faire principles, implying that U.S. policy makers do not provide government support for industrial or commercial sectors. While mostly true, it is not the case with strategic industries, such as aerospace. Support for the aerospace sector has been viewed as essential, because aerospace technologies have been the material backbone of U.S. security systems. But American historic dominance in commercial aerospace, and particularly the large commercial aircraft sector, arose on the back of defence technology paid for by...