Aerospace could keep Kansas from feeling much of the pain caused by a national recession. As Stephan Bisaha of the Kansas News Service reports, several economists are predicting a recession in the next two years.
Economist Richard Aboulafia says the aerospace industry fared pretty well during the Great Recession.
"The only exception was Kansas. It's almost like the industry put all of its pain in Wichita," he says.
He says that was due to Wichita's production of small and mid-sized business jets, the segment hit hardest by the recession.
But now there's huge demand for the commercial aviation fuselages currently being built in Kansas by Wichita's Spirit AeroSystems.
"This is looking if not completely recession-proof then, well, in pretty great shape," he says.
Aerospace contributes about five billion dollars annually to the state's gross domestic product and makes up a quarter of the state's exports, according to the Kansas Department of Commerce.
Economists do warn there's a bigger risk to Kansas than a recession -- an escalated trade war with China.