Saw some very cool stuff today after work, cruising around the prototyping and manufacturing shops at a big customer site.
Some of you guys into welding and metal fab work would have a woody for days. 4 and 5 axis megabuck CNC machining centers, an electron beam welder (fully robotic) that I think they said cost $6mil, curing ovens and x-ray chambers 60 or 80ft long, etc. Remote controlled overhead bridge cranes everwhere, to move stuff around.
One thing that is mfr'ed here is the Atlas V solid rocket booster engines. This thing would blow the minds of any kid who ever screwed with model rockets. 64 feet tall/long, holds about 100,000 lbs of solid rocket propellant!!! Big cast alloy sausage wrapped in composites. It takes almost 3 days to fill with fuel and burns it all up in 90 seconds...$2 or $3mil a pop IIRC (they use several per launch vehicle)
I can only imagine the quality of welding and milling work that goes into these rocket and plane engine and fuel system parts...what a trip.