Book excerpt: India’s Aircraft Industry, despite having been formed as early as in December 1940 has been unable to meet the equipment needs of the aviation users, whether military or civil, in the country. As a consequence India imports all its aircraft needs from abroad. This situation needs to change. This book starts from an examination of the importance of aviation to the country both for military as well as or civil purposes. From here it goes on to trace the development of aviation in India. Then the book examines the Indian Aircraft Industry from studying the aircraft projects carried out by India. From these aircraft projects lessons and learning have been culled for use later in the book. Thereafter there are case studies carried out of the two leading airpower capability countries, the USA and erstwhile Soviet Union / Russia. There are also case studies of Brazil and China as these two countries were behind India in aviation in the 1950s but are globally competitive today, unlike India. The lessons and learning from the case studies are compiled and then used finally to develop possible models that could help make India’s aircraft industry globally competitive.