This is a very good observation, though I'd make one nitpick... The tooling used for the airframes then isn't much different than the tooling used to build them

This is a very good observation, though I'd make one nitpick... The tooling used for the airframes then isn't much different than the tooling used to build them now. The industry has only just started to embrace robotic composite construction, otherwise it's the same rivet guns and squeezers that they've always used more or less. If you know of any liquidation sales giving away 100s of clecos or dies for nothing, let me know...