It's a bird, it's a plane...it's a career!

When many of today's aerospace engineers-at least those of a certain agewere growing up, few industries were more exciting than aerospace. These were the companies that sent rockets into space, and blasted man to the moon. Defense-industry firms built supersonic jet fighters and huge, ominous-looking bombers. Accordingly, the industry had little trouble signing up young talent.

But times and priorities change. Today, the "coolest" industries are in Silicon Valley, and budding engineering talents are foregoing aerospace companies for the potential riches offered by those high-tech firms. Moreover, the aerospace industry is hobbled by federal budget cuts in the wake of the end of the cold war and the space race. That means defense firms now offer work that is often less challenging and less cutting-edge than it used to be.

"There is a lot of concern about this," says Janet Neale, spokesperson for the Aerospace Industries Association in Washington. "People are astonished because there is so little interest in aerospace engineering." The problem is not entirely new. A decade ago the AIA published a report on the "crisis" in recruiting which found that the industry's workforce was aging, but too few young engineers were applying for jobs. F. Clifton Berry, the report's author, is updating his findings and suggests that he's hearing some of the same things. Meanwhile, consulting firm Booz-Allen & Hamilton finds that 54 percent of the defense industry's science and engineering workforce is more than 45 years old, 33 percent will be retirement age in five years, and only 7 percent is under 30.

Alarmed, many big defense contractors have begun programs to reignite interest in aerospace engineering among young people. They are doing such things as visiting grade schools and scout troops, sending top engineers to judge high-school science fairs, and increasing their presence on college campuses. But the industry may find it hard to compete on bucks. Base aerospace engineering salaries average around $45,000, but engineers can easily earn double or triple that amount at a software or Internet company-and more than a few have become dot-corn million-- aires almost overnight.

When that kind of money beckons, childhood dreams of designing the next generation of spacecraft can quickly evaporate.