I worked at an avionics contractor for a number of years and that mirrors my experience as well. On Level A projects, the process was at least followed, but it was often under tight stressful deadlines. Testing was frequently off-shored to save money, but often resulted in low quality tests that had to be reworked at the last minute by in-house engineers.
The state on a later Level C & D project was in worse shape: bloated architecture, lots of requirements churn, little to no peer review, one unrealistic deadline after another, and mandatory overtime for large periods. It was not an environment conducive to thoughtfulness or quality. I finally got fed up and quit.
