People may look back on 2005 as the "good old days" in the aero- space industry. At least that's the impression they would get reviewing many earnings results for the quarter ended Sept. 30. Lockheed Martin's profits were up 39% from a year earlier, and the defense giant was hardly alone in posting earnings gains that soared well into double-digits. "These are the boom times," says David Napier, chief economist at the Aerospace Industries Assn. "Both the commercial and defense sectors are growing. That's in contrast to the mid-1990s, when both were turning down."
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