AIAA's Mission and Objectives

The mission of AIAA is to serve the profession and to benefit the Institute's individual members and member institutions. The Institute addresses the needs of scientists, engineers, and allied professionals who conceive, design, develop, test, construct, and operate air and space vehicles, their associated systems and subsystems, as well as the educators who train the professionals, researchers who continuously renew the technology, managers who lead their efforts, and innovators who bring forth new concepts.

The Institute fulfills this mission by:

1. Acting as a catalyst for information flow and creative exchange by providing forums where professionals can meet their counterparts in their own and allied disciplines and fields, present their findings and discoveries, and exchange views.
2. Leading a strong and proactive international focus by actively seeking foreign membership and initiating participation in international technical forums and joint activities with other organizations worldwide.
3. Continuing a world-class technical information and publications service to keep the members well informed of the latest developments and prospects.
4. Bestowing honors and awards that recognize exemplary accomplishments and inspire all members of the Institute and public at large.
5. Offering career development and continuing education in furtherance of the profession.
6. Supporting the educational process that brings into being future generations of aviation and space professionals by nurturing interest among students, by involving a wide representation of members in helping academic institutions evolve the most effective and highest standard of curricula, and by involving enrolled students as pre-professional members of the Institute.
7. Where appropriate, providing a voice for the professional community in public policy debate and informing the public of the value of technological leadership.
8. Constantly expanding the horizons of the Institute to reflect changing technologies, opportunities, and competitive challenges.

Our Five-Year Strategic Objectives

We at AIAA are concerned with bringing you the best possible resources and services to improve your professional progress. These five-year objectives represent a commitment on our part to advance and support the cause of aeronautics and astronautics.

As a technical society, AIAA's objectives are aimed at enhancing current technical strengths through enhanced technical meetings and publications, a strong, dynamic region and section organization, and varied student programs. In addition, AIAA's future depends upon its response to nontraditional technologies (such as avionics, software, robotics, materials, etc.) that are increasingly important in the aerospace community. The Institute's five-year strategic objectives are to:

• Strengthen membership and aerospace community participation;
• Better serve nontraditional but rapidly growing (in both numbers and significance) technologies;
• Place additional emphasis on public policy programs that support and promote aerospace contributions to the nation; and
• Improve the quality and availability of resident aerospace educational programs.

Membership Statistics

Our members are varied and represent a large cross-section of today's aerospace community.  The following statistics are current as of January 2010.