Federal obligations in aircraft manufacturing (NAICS 336411)

What NAICS 336411 covers on federal contracts

NAICS 336411 is the Census classification for establishments that manufacture complete aircraft. On USAspending.gov, the same code appears on contract award records when the product or service is classified as aircraft manufacturing. It is not a count of airframes delivered, and it is not a roster of every aviation-related purchase the government makes. The tag follows the contracting officer's industry classification on the award, which can stay on a vehicle for years of modifications.

Other aerospace manufacturing codes pick up different slices of the same supply chain. Engines, spare parts, and complete missiles sit on separate NAICS lines. A reader who only quotes 336411 will miss those dollars even when they support the same programs. The $543.3 billion figure is large because complete aircraft are high-dollar items and because this code has been applied across a long run of contract awards in the warehouse, not because it is a single invoice.

How to read $543.3 billion in obligations

USAspending reports obligations: the legal commitments agencies record when they make or modify awards. An obligation can rise when a contract is awarded, when an option is exercised, or when a ceiling is increased. It can also be adjusted downward. The $543,343,687,669.44 total is the sum of those recorded amounts on awards tagged 336411. This packet does not split the figure by fiscal year, so the headline is a cumulative industry rollup, not an annual appropriation.

Outlays are the payments that follow. A multi-year aircraft program can show a large obligation long before the Treasury disburses the last dollar. Treating the industry total as money already spent overstates cash out the door. Treating it as a budget request confuses it with appropriations that may never have been obligated under this code. Quote the figure as USAspending contract obligations coded to aircraft manufacturing.

Award count versus concentrated airframe dollars

The 51,176 awards behind this total are contract award records, not unique airplanes. Orders under indefinite-delivery vehicles, lot buys, and modifications can each appear as separate rows. The count measures how often agencies used this NAICS tag, not how many airframes left a factory. Compared with parts codes that generate many small spare orders, complete-aircraft manufacturing still concentrates a great deal of money on large actions, but 51,176 records is not a handful of primes. Open the industry table for the underlying list rather than inferring a tiny vendor set from the headline.

What this industry table excludes

This rollup covers contract awards with NAICS 336411. Grants, cooperative agreements, loans, and other assistance generally do not carry NAICS and sit outside the $543,343,687,669.44 total. Purchases of engines, avionics, or depot maintenance coded to other industries are also outside it, even when they keep the same aircraft flying. Agency and recipient pages elsewhere on the site answer different questions than this NAICS cut.

The source is USAspending.gov contract data as aggregated on SpendingVault. Totals can move when agencies correct records or when the warehouse refreshes. The live industry page is the table of record; this guide restates the packet totals only.

Using the aircraft manufacturing industry page

Start from the AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING industry page for the current award list and any agency or recipient breakouts published there. Use All industries to place 336411 next to other NAICS lines in the same dataset. Keep the distinction between obligations and outlays whenever you cite $543.3 billion, and keep the 51,176 award count attached so readers can see volume as well as dollars.

Citing aircraft manufacturing without overclaiming

A careful citation names the source, the NAICS, and the field. Example language: USAspending.gov contract awards coded 336411 show $543,343,687,669.44 in obligations across 51,176 awards. That sentence does not claim a production rate, a fiscal year, or an outlay total, because those facts are not in this packet. It also does not claim that every aviation dollar is inside 336411.

Researchers who need agency, recipient, or award-ID detail should open the industry table rather than restating only the headline. The $543.3 billion rollup is a classification sum. Individual aircraft programs can be split across engine, parts, and support codes. If a later warehouse refresh changes the total, treat the live page as current and this guide as a reading of the packet facts at generation time.

Questions

How much has the federal government obligated on NAICS 336411 aircraft manufacturing?

USAspending.gov contract awards coded NAICS 336411, aircraft manufacturing, show $543,343,687,669.44 in obligations across 51,176 awards. That figure is obligations, not outlays, and it covers contract awards with this industry code. Assistance awards often have no NAICS and are not in this total.

Does the $543.3 billion include money already paid to aircraft makers?

No. The $543,343,687,669.44 total is obligations recorded on USAspending contract awards tagged 336411. Outlays are the later payments. A large aircraft obligation can sit on an award for years before the last disbursement. This packet does not report an outlay total.

Are the 51,176 awards the same as 51,176 airplanes?

No. The 51,176 figure counts contract award records coded to NAICS 336411, including orders and modifications that share a program. It is not a production tally of complete aircraft. Use the industry page award list to see how those records break down.

Why are grants missing from the aircraft manufacturing industry total?

NAICS codes on USAspending come from contract awards. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS, so they do not roll into the $543,343,687,669.44 industry total. Researchers who need grant dollars should look at assistance views, not this NAICS table.