Washington ? Roughly a quarter of the nation’s 637,000 aerospace workers could be eligible for retirement this year, raising fears that America could be facing a serious skills shortage in the factories that churn out commercial and military aircraft.

“It’s a looming issue that’s getting more serious year by year,” said Marion Blakey, the president and chief executive officer of the Aerospace Industries Association. “These are real veterans. It’s a hard work force to replace.”

The AIA, which represents aircraft manufacturers and suppliers, has designated the potential skills drain as one of its top 10 priorities in this year’s presidential race. One of the major unions that represent aerospace workers also is embracing the issue in a rare alliance between labor and management.

“It’s not a problem that’s coming,” said Frank Larkin, the spokesman for the 720,000-member International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. “It’s here.”

The issue particularly resonates in aircraft manufacturing centers such as the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas, the St. Louis metropolitan area, the Puget Sound region in Washington state and Wichita, Kan., which bills itself as the “Air Capital of the World.”

In Wichita, which has five major aircraft plants and hundreds of suppliers and vendors, community leaders are pursuing measures to offset the potential loss of more than 40 percent of the aeronautics work force over the next five years. One initiative calls for the creation of a world-class aviation training center to help meet the need for an additional 12,000 aerospace workers by 2018.

The impact varies by community. The Seattle-Tacoma area appears to be bucking the trend through a production surge at Boeing plants that’s expanded the work force with new hires from across the generational spectrum, including a growing number of workers between the ages of 18 and 29.

But nationally, the aerospace work force is graying as the baby boom generation prepares to retire.

Ten years ago, the industry’s largest age group was 35 to 44. In 2007, nearly 60 percent of the work force was 45 or older. At least 20 percent were between the ages of 55 to 64, and many, if not most, were already eligible for retirement, according to the AIA. An additional 2 percent – or 12,203 employees – were 65 or older.

The problem is essentially one of supply and demand. Both the commercial and military segments of the industry are enjoying robust growth, with sales expected to increase by $12 billion this year. The demand for aerospace, electrical, mechanical and computer engineering disciplines this year is expected to be double what it was 10 years ago.

But analysts and corporate bosses say that colleges and universities are turning out far too few engineering and aeronautical graduates to fill future vacancies. Public schools’ poor record in teaching math and science is another worry. And as the boomers aged, the birthrate declined, resulting in a diminished pool of replacements.

Harry Holzer, a Georgetown University professor who served as the chief economist for the Labor Department, said the problem ultimately might be resolved by market forces. But for the moment, he said, “it won’t be painless, and some real adjustments may have to occur.”

In Wichita, groundbreaking is expected this spring on the $50 billion National Center for Aviation Training to help perpetuate the region’s stature as a world leader in aviation. Wichita has an estimated 35,000 aerospace workers and accounts for nearly half of general aviation deliveries in the United States.

“We’re really attacking it as an opportunity,” said Jim Schwarzenberger, a vice president for the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce.