Published: Tuesday, October 1, 2013, 6:20 p.m.

The highlight of the first day was an unusual panel of three executives of publicly traded aerospace companies that represented every stage of the commercial jetliner market: supplier, airplane builder and airline.

The executives were Pat Shanahan, a senior vice president and general manager of airplane programs for Renton-based Boeing Commercial Airplanes; Brad Tilden, CEO of Alaska Air Group, which owns Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air; and Olivier Zarrouati, CEO and chairman of Zodiac Aerospace.

Many of Shanahan's remarks were, of course, about the billion-dollar question of where Boeing will build the 777X. More on that here.

Shanahan also spoke to the state of the industry ("It's an incredible market right now") and waxed philosophical about the implications of the complexity of building airplanes.

Like trees planted by Federal Way-based Weyerhaeuser Co., Shanahan said, "aerospace is a renewable industry," the products of which are built to last 40 or 50 years.

"Looks can be deceiving," he said. "Right now things are going great.

"But I'm thinking about the business I need to do now" to ensure airplanes are delivered and revenue is collected five and 10 years later -- the time between an airline's initial interest and a plane's delivery.

Plaisir, France-based Zodiac Aerospace supplies companies like Boeing with assemblies, components and parts, including airplane interiors, seats and evacuation systems. Zodiac employs 26,000 people worldwide -- 2,000 of them in Washington. Zarrouati agreed that managing aerospace companies requires insight.

"It's a very forward-looking industry," Zarrouati said. "A lot of us are not going to be there," years from now, "to face the decisions that we make today."

Excerpt from:

Execs discuss the state of aerospace