The earnings buzz right now is still focused on Big Tech hitting it out of the park Thursday, July 30. Apple Inc. (AAPL), Facebook Inc. (FB), Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) reported a combined profit of nearly $29 billion on sales of almost $200 billion for Q2 – amid a pandemic that locked us in our homes.

With most investors holding some if not all of these stocks, this is more good news for our portfolios. Of course, the best wealth-building strategy mixes these can't-lose leaders with lesser known niche-sector winners that can deliver big growth. Today, I want to alert you to an off-the-radar tech pick I'm watching this week.

It's a defense equipment maker that can be a big player in the current economic landscape and for what lies ahead. It's not a household name, although it did recently get a nice mention in Barron's. It's set to double its earnings in the next 3.5 years. Q2 earnings are due out soon; Q1 numbers were solid.

We should see a lot more from this stock in the coming months. It's an industrial and defense company that's stayed ahead of the curve for 90 years. And that's what I expect from an aeronautics firm with roots tracing back to the "father of naval aviation" and the Wright Brothers themselves.

This Aeronautics Firm Will Keep Flying High

That company is Curtiss-Wright Corp. (CW). The Curtiss is from Glenn Curtiss, the father of naval aviation. And Wright, you know, the brothers that started the whole flying thing. Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis was powered by a Wright Aeronautical engine.

The company launched in 1929, but even the Great Depression couldn't keep it grounded. This is a firm that pioneered forged aluminum pistons and air-cooled engines along with other breakthrough technologies. By the 1950's, the company was starting to pioneer plastics and jet engines.

For more than 90 years now, it's stayed ahead of the curve in aeronautics. Today, its business is built into four main sectors: defense (43% of revenue), general industrial (24%), commercial aviation (17%), and power generation (16%).

Surprisingly, the defense sector doesn't break down as you might expect. Nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers are 23% of that sector. Aerospace is 16%, and ground forces are 7%. Its power generation business focuses on AP1000 nuclear reactors, so you can see some overlap with its defense nuke business. And all its businesses are wrapped in a core competency that keeps Curtiss-Wright in great demand in its sectors – embedded computing.

Embedded computing is a computer system that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electrical system. Cars, planes, ships, and many other things have computer systems within the larger operating whole.

And this is a very big industry. According to Insight Partners, embedded computing was a $34 billion industry in 2018, and will be worth roughly $68 billion by 2027. But in the meantime, Curtiss-Wright is already well-positioned to profit.

Its operating margins are growing nicely. That has helped CW produce more than $1.6 billion in free cash flow in the last five years. The company is scheduled to deliver Q2 numbers August 3. Q1 numbers were solid. Defense sector sales were up 24% as operating income grew by 10%. The stock is trading at a 50% discount from the S&P 500's price-earnings ratio.

And if that doesn't spell built-in upside, consider that it is growing per-share profits more than three times faster than sales and by an average 21%. That means they are set to double in roughly three and a half years. Boeing (BA) trades at roughly $176 a share, while CW goes for about $92, or nearly 48% less.

Add it all up and you can see this is a much better play for your portfolio than Boeing. It's one you can count on to perform nicely for many years to come.