At a time when federal budget cuts are reshaping the nation's aerospace industry, a far different makeover is underway in the executive suites of some of the country's biggest defense contractors.

Lockheed Martin Corp., the world's largest defense firm, announced this month that electronics whiz Marillyn A. Hewson would become chief executive the first woman to take on that role at the company.

The move came abruptly after the Bethesda, Md., company's incoming chief executive, Christopher E. Kubasik, was forced out after an ethics investigation confirmed he had a "close personal relationship" with a subordinate employee.

It was an announcement that might have drawn much greater attention from the nation's defense establishment in Washington if it hadn't come the same day CIA Director David Petraeus suddenly resigned amid headline-rich reports of an extramarital affair.

After all, no aerospace firm so large or influential has ever been run by a woman. Hewson's promotion followed the summer announcement that Phebe Novakovic would take over as chief executive at General Dynamics, the nation's fifth-largest defense firm, in Fairfax, Va.

Both take over the top posts Jan. 1, as female engineers, scientists and managers who joined the industry during the Cold War are rising to prominence in a staid industry long dominated by men. Although women have climbed to the top of other industries for decades, aerospace has gone without women at the top until recent years.

"The ascension of women like Marillyn Hewson and Phebe Novakovic to the top of the corporate ladder suggests that while the glass ceiling in aerospace and defense may not have been entirely shattered, it's certainly become more transparent," said Marion Blakey, chief executive of the Aerospace Industries Assn. trade group.

Come Jan. 1, there will be a record 21 women who serve as chief executives of firms on the Fortune 500 list of the nation's largest public companies, including Hewson and Novakovic.

Deborah Soon, senior vice president of strategy at Catalyst, a nonprofit organization that tracks the progress of women in the business world, said parity is still a long way off.

"We look forward to the day when a woman leading an aerospace company is no longer news," she said.

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Women are increasingly ascending to top posts at aerospace firms