INDUSTRY-BY-INDUSTRY OUTLOOK : The Year in Preview

California came several years late to the nation’s economic recovery party, but the state should be celebrating all through 1997.

Here is what key industries will be up to:

AEROSPACE: The post-Cold War consolidation of the defense industry will likely see its last act this year in the aftermath of the Boeing-McDonnell Douglas deal, with a final burst of mergers that will affect thousands of Southern California aerospace workers. Development of several space-based communications systems will mean bustling production of satellites and rocket launchers.