Industry in Transition.

The aerospace and defense industry seems to be waiting to see if the year fulfills its promise of an airline turnaround, waiting to see who will buy a pair of new airliners, and waiting for a next generation of military aircraft as of March 2004. Asian discount carriers are making the region's world-famous full service carriers nervous, and there is evidence of a "new" Asia emerging, led by India, which is supplanting China as the region's "sleeping giant." The regional airline segment has been the strongest growth area of the airline industry worldwide in the last two years, said M. Barry MacKinnon, Bombardier Aerospace vice president of marketing.