So, I have to tell you how hard it was to resist the temptation to go down the obvious post title on this one.
It was really really hard.
There, now ya know.
But really, cars and airplanes are not strictly the same thing. And, for that matter, neither is the making of cars and the flying of airplanes the same thing either. However, companies that make cars and companies that fly airplanes ARE kinda the same. Same in enough ways that they make for useful comparisons.