Regional breakdown
Asia is the most important research region for aeronautical technologies. Between 2000 and 2023, there were more than 75,000 patent families published by inventors based in Asia (Figure C6). This represents more than 57% of all patent families identified. Of course, Northern America (36,455) and Europe (23,928) are also important research regions, thanks to their leading aeronautics companies and research institutes.
The number of patent families from other regions (Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean(LAC) and Oceania) remains rather low.
Note: Some patent families are assigned to more than one region according to the addresses of the inventors, which is why the sum of the shares is greater than 100%.
Top inventor countries
At the level of individual countries, China and the United States lead the world in research activity in air transport technologies. Between 2000 and 2023, inventors from China published more than 52,000 patent families in these technologies, while inventors from the United States were responsible for the publication of more than 35,000 patent families (Figure C7). Consequently, these two countries together published almost two thirds of all patent families worldwide.
China's emergence as an aeronautics research powerhouse has been underpinned by political support, with the Government of China making aeronautics a national priority and integrating it into past and current Five Year plans, a series of social and economic development initiatives.
One flagship project has been the development of a Chinese commercial aircraft to reduce dependence on foreign aircraft.
For many years, the United States has been the dominant force in aeronautics and aviation. A combination of historical, technological, economic and strategic factors has led to this leadership. The origins of the US aviation industry date back to the beginning of the 20th century, marked by the first controlled powered flight by the Wright brothers in 1903 – a pivotal moment in the history of aviation. The two world wars in the first half of the 20th century spurred rapid advances in aviation technology, with the United States at the forefront of innovations such as fighter jets and bombers.
Today, the United States remains a global leader in aviation thanks to its mature and diverse ecosystem, which includes engine manufacturers (such as GE), aircraft manufacturers (such as Boeing) and military aerospace leaders (such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and RTX). This ecosystem benefits from institutions such as MIT, Stanford, Caltech, NASA and the National Institute of Aerospace, all of which have leading aerospace engineering programs that contribute to ongoing research and innovation.
Japan is the third most important research location with around 10,500 patent families published between 2000 and 2023. Japan has a strong presence in aeronautics and air transport research with companies such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI), which are suppliers of components and subassemblies to Boeing and Airbus. KHI also makes small patrol and transport aircraft and helicopters. Japan is a leader in materials science, particularly in the development of the lightweight composite materials used in modern aircraft. However, Japan's aerospace industry has suffered setbacks in recent years, with MHI abandoning the development of its Mitsubishi SpaceJet passenger aircraft project following technical setbacks and spiralling costs, and also abandoning its plan to enter the commercial jetliner business.
France (8,754 published patent families) and Germany (7,542) are the leading European research locations. Together, these two countries are major forces in aeronautics research, particularly through their collaboration in Airbus, a world leader in the manufacture of commercial aircraft. In addition to Airbus, other key French and German research players include companies such as MTU Aero Engines, Safran and Thales, institutions such as the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the French Aerospace Research Agency (ONERA) and major universities (e.g. the Technical University of Munich and the École Polytechnique).
Other important countries for aeronautics research are the Republic of Korea (7,924) and the United Kingdom (UK) (4,121). The Russian Federation, Canada and India rank 8th to 10th, with over 1,000 patent family publications each since 2000.
Australia, Israel and several European countries (Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, the Kingdom of Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Finland) complete the rest of the top 20 inventor locations. These top 20 inventor locations account for the majority of patenting activity related to air transport technologies.
Development and patent growth since 2000
Figure C8 shows that China has become the leading research location in air transport, as well as in the other transport modes. From just 10 patents in 2000, the number of patents from China has skyrocketed to around 8,100 in 2023. Along the way, China overtook the United States in terms of annual patent publications in 2016 and has held top spot ever since.
Patent family publications have recently decreased in most major countries owing to the postCOVID-19 pandemic challenges mentioned above, and the United States is no exception. US patent family publications increased relatively steadily between 2000 and 2018 (from 422 to 2,805) but have since decreased significantly (to 1,709 in 2023). An additional factor likely to have contributed to this are the current problems at Boeing, which have led to a decline in innovation activity at the US aircraft manufacturer.
The Republic of Korea has continued to increase its patent family publications in recent years. As a result, with more than 900 patent family publications in 2023, the Republic of Korea ranks third in the country ranking. The country has made significant strides in aviation and has experienced rapid growth, particularly in passenger and freight traffic. Key players include universities such as the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) as well as companies such as Korea Aerospace Industries (aircraft manufacturer), which is developing the KAI KF-21 fighter jet together with US Lockheed Martin,
In terms of growth rates of patent families, China,India, Israel and the Republic of Korea are ahead with very dynamic growth rates between 2000 and 2019. China and the Republic of Korea alsocontinued to have high positive growth rates for the period from 2020 to 2023.
The most dynamic European country is Spain with a very high compound annual growth between 2000 and 2019 (12.6% p.a.) (Figure C9). However, patenting activity from Spain has declined since 2020. A similar picture emerges for Israel.
Research priorities: countries
A closer look at the research priorities at a country level reveals significant differences. Communication and Security technologies are clearly the dominant research focus areas for the leading Asian research locations (China, Japan and Republic of Korea) (Figure C10 and Table C1). By contrast, the area of Sustainable Propulsion/efficient aircraft turbines is the main research topic of the top European countries (France, Germany and the United Kingdom). In the United States, research efforts are more evenly distributed between Communication and Security and Sustainable Propulsion/efficient aircraft turbines.
Top inventor locations per technology trend
The differences in research priorities mentioned above are also reflected in the country rankings for the four transport technology trends. While China is the clear leader in both Communication and Security and Automation and Circularity technologies, US inventors have published the most patent families in Sustainable Propulsion/Efficient Aircraft Turbines and HMI technologies (Figure C11).
Other notable facts are the important role of France and Germany in Sustainable Propulsion/efficient aircraft turbines, the strong research position of Japan in Automation and Circularity and the relative strength of the Republic of Korea in HMI technologies.
Relative Specialization Index
The Relative Specialization Index (RSI) is a metric used to compare a country's (or company's) patenting activity in a specific research field against its overall patenting activity. It shows how much a country specializes in a particular area compared to its overall research profile. A positive RSI indicates that a country is specializing in a particular field more than the global average, whereas a negative RSI suggests a country is specializing less in a particular field compared to the global average.
The RSI for air transport technologies illustrates the extraordinarily important role of aviation in France (Figure C12). France reaches a very high RSI index of 0.7 over every observed time periods which is much higher than the second placed the United States (RSI of 0.4 in most recent years). Air transport research is also very important in Canada, India and the United Kingdom, even though the RSI in India and the United Kingdom has declined somewhat in recent years.
At the opposite end of the country ranking of the top 20 nations in air transport research are the N Kingdom of the Netherlands and Japan, whose negative RSI scores indicate a low level of specialization.
