At this small factory south of Seattle, employees make one of the most specialized products in the aerospace industry; the rubber mats that Boeing workers stand on while assembling jets. As long as there are jets and Boeing, business would seem to be steady. But even here workers are bracing for bumps and economic uncertainty over the gritty details of where aviation parts get made and who makes them.

New orders for machine tools declined in November for the second consecutive month, following the increases in August and September, coinciding with IMTS 2016. U.S. manufacturers ordered $329.61m worth of new manufacturing technology during November, according to the U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) report issued each month by the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT).

USC mechanical engineering junior Stephanie Balais developed a passion for aerospace after joining the university's AeroDesign team and helping to construct an airplane fuselage hours before transporting the plane to a competition in Kansas.

U.S. durable goods orders rebounded strongly in October, surging past expectations amid increased demand for aircraft and other transportation machinery. The Commerce Department said orders for items meant to last three years increased $11bn, or 4.8 percent, to $239.4bn last month, following a downwardly revised 0.4 percent drop in September. Economists had predicted a 1.7 percent gain.