Originally Posted by olnico

Another, more concerning, side of that story.

The young generation that used to dream about planes would come to the model field and start building their own small project with their dad. They would start developing an engineering taste from the age of 13. And love for airplanes.
By the time they would arrive at the University, they would already know how to build an airplane.
This has been lost. This is what made the US Aerospace Industry so great.

I am in constant look for young Aerospace Engineers and Technicians.
I do not find any technicians in this part of the World. Fair enough, I can train them from scratch.
But not engineers.
The engineers that are made available to me are IT geeks. They have no practical sense of manufacture and very little engineering taste. Typically, they are lightning fast when it comes to designing a part on CAD, but this part is almost impossible to produce! I would have to put them on the production line for years to be able to get them to create something that can be manufactured. But they don't want to get anywhere near the shop floor. And anyway, the trigger point starts at the age of 13, when one makes and flies the first plane with Dad. I cannot substitute this for any training...

The Western World Aerospace Industry is getting a huge hit as the old school engineers are retiring.