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Topic · Aerospace Engineering

Aerospace and Aviation Technology

Aerospace and Aviation Technology is a research topic within Aerospace Engineering. Science Explorer counts 18k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for wind estimation, dynamic soaring, aerodynamic modeling, and autonomous flight control. The research covers topics such as parameter estimation, atmospheric boundary layer observations, and the application of UAVs in meteorological studies. Additionally, the cluster explores UAV capabilities for mitigating aircraft loss of control and enhancing endurance through autonomous soaring.

  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Wind Estimation
  • Dynamic Soaring
  • Aerodynamic Modeling
  • Flight Control
  • Atmospheric Boundary Layer
  • Parameter Estimation
  • Autonomous Soaring
  • Aircraft Loss of Control
  • Meteorological Observations
Research works
18k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+44%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
41% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Aerospace and Aviation Technology

Which countries lead Aerospace and Aviation Technology research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (1.3k and 837 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1.3k works
  2. 2 United States 837 works
  3. 3 India 206 works
  4. 4 Germany 200 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 156 works
  6. 6 Japan 98 works
  7. 7 Türkiye 93 works
  8. 8 Canada 92 works
  9. 9 Russia 89 works
  10. 10 France 79 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 41.0%United States: 26.7%India: 6.6%Germany: 6.4%6 others listed: 19.4%41%largest
China1,285 · 41.0%United States837 · 26.7%India206 · 6.6%Germany200 · 6.4%6 others listed608 · 19.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Aerospace and Aviation Technology research?

By volume in 2022-now, Beihang University publishes the most Aerospace and Aviation Technology research, followed by Northwestern Polytechnical University and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Beihang UniversityChina 93 works
  2. 2 Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 93 works
  3. 3 Nanjing University of Aeronautics and AstronauticsChina 91 works
  4. 4 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 72 works
  5. 5 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationUnited States 70 works
  6. 6 United States Department of DefenseUnited States 66 works
  7. 7 Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (China)China 50 works
  8. 8 Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 44 works
  9. 9 Civil Aviation University of ChinaChina 38 works
  10. 10 China Aerodynamics Research and Development CenterChina 37 works

Who are the leading researchers in Aerospace and Aviation Technology?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Aerospace and Aviation Technology include Andrew Y. Ng.

  1. 1 Andrew Y. Ng United States 131k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Aerospace and Aviation Technology?

The most cited paper in Aerospace and Aviation Technology is "Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): Results of Empirical and Theoretical Research" (Sandra G. Hart, Lowell E. Staveland, 1988), with 14,841 citations. Next come "A new approach for filtering nonlinear systems" (1,933) and "Design and Evaluation for Situation Awareness Enhancement" (1,923).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): Results of Empirical and Theoretical Research Sandra G. Hart, Lowell E. Staveland · Advances in psychology Book chapter 1988 14,841
2 A new approach for filtering nonlinear systems Simon Julier, Jeffrey K. Uhlmann, Hugh F Durrant-Whyte Conference paper 24 Aug 2005 1,933
3 Design and Evaluation for Situation Awareness Enhancement Mica Robertson Endsley · Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting Oct 1988 1,923
4 Particle filters for positioning, navigation, and tracking Fredrik Gustafsson, Fredrik Gunnarsson, Niclas Bergman et al. · IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing Open access 2002 1,713
5 Quadrotor Helicopter Flight Dynamics and Control: Theory and Experiment Gabriel M. Hoffmann, Haomiao Huang, Steven L. Waslander et al. · AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference and Exhibit Conference paper 15 Jun 2007 1,118
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Aerospace and Aviation Technology research done?

The largest centres of Aerospace and Aviation Technology research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Xi'an (China), Nanjing (China) and Shanghai (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Luocheng, Hampton and Cranfield.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 290 works
  2. 2 Xi'anChina 168 works
  3. 3 NanjingChina 132 works
  4. 4 ShanghaiChina 105 works
  5. 5 CologneGermany 72 works
  6. 6 TianjinChina 60 works
  7. 7 MoscowRussia 48 works
  8. 8 MunichGermany 48 works
  9. 9 DelftNetherlands 44 works
  10. 10 TokyoJapan 44 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. LuochengCN · 30.1 works112×
  2. HamptonUS · 36.2 works100×
  3. CranfieldGB · 28.2 works55×
  4. MianyangCN · 39.7 works18×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Aerospace and Aviation Technology than the world average.

See Aerospace and Aviation Technology on the map

Where is the best place to study Aerospace and Aviation Technology?

Among universities, judged by research, Beihang University, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 17.8%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Hong Kong Polytechni…Northwestern Polytec…Beihang UniversityNanjing University o…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Beihang UniversityChina 71.615.8%24.4×94 +85.6%
2Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 69.316.2%23.5×93 +58.2%
3Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 66.724.9%3.2×10 +248.0%
4Nanjing University of Aeronautics and AstronauticsChina 62.89.5%29.7×92 +43.0%
5Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 61.522.1%4.8×13 +2.4%
6Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 60.511.4%18.8×44 -15.2%
7Cranfield UniversityUnited Kingdom 58.812.8%60.5×28 +53.7%
8Seoul National UniversitySouth Korea 58.523.1%2.3×9 +56.6%
9Zhejiang UniversityChina 58.423.0%1.4×13 +395.7%
10Virginia TechUnited States 56.319.2%8.2×16 +15.7%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Aerospace and Aviation Technology, country by country

Is Aerospace and Aviation Technology research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 44% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Aerospace and Aviation Technology.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Aerospace and Aviation Technology as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.013% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Aerospace and Aviation Technology0.019% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Aerospace and Aviation Technology over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Aerospace and Aviation Technology9.7% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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