Aerospace outsources to a ridiculous degree, and every layer of subcontractor above the one doing the work adds profit and overhead.

Second, there's this tendency of big aerospace companies to outsource everything. That's been trendy in lots of industries, but aerospace has done it to a ridiculous degree. They outsource to subcontractors, and then the subcontractors outsource to sub-subcontractors, and so on. You have to go four or five layers down to find somebody actually doing something useful—actually cutting metal, shaping atoms. Every level above that tacks on profit—it's overhead to the fifth power.