How can the aerospace industry continue to push the boundaries of aircraft regulations, space technology and job skills in this age of digital transformation?

This community is a high-level group of peers dedicated to ensuring the long-term sustainability of their industry and society.

Industry Agenda

The Aerospace agenda is set annually by the Governors, comprised of CEOs and Chairpersons from the field, who identify key priority areas for the community to address and design. The Forum is currently focussed on transforming the skies with projects on Target True Zero emission flying, Advanced Aerial Mobility, Medicine from the Sky (drones) and our Global Future Council on Space.

1. Target True Zero - Novel Propulsion; Zero Emission Flying through Hydrogen and Electric Technologies

The Target True Zero Coalition brings together key stakeholders from across aviation and other industries to accelerate the development, deployment and scaling of novel forms of propulsion, including electric and hydrogen powered aircraft. The coalition will address technical, economic, policy and infrastructure issues that will enable future adoption of these technologies with the aim of fostering progress toward a zero climate impact aviation system.

Target True Zero is led by the World Economic Forum and supported by knowledge partners McKinsey & Company, the University of Cambridge’s Aviation Impact Accelerator, and the Aviation Environment Federation.

2. Drones: Certification, Regulation and Unmanned Traffic Management

Our drones work aims to develop regulatory frameworks and management practices that empower society to make better use of airspace. It also seeks to enable safe, clean and inclusive use of drones for delivery, mobility and aerial data capture. It will achieve this by defining a future for civil drones that maximizes the benefits to society and mitigates risk.

• Determining the regulatory environment needed to achieve this future.


• Identifying the air traffic management and other infrastructure required for scaling drone innovation - Please visit the Drone Innovators Network page for more information on this community and work.


• Creating a network of pilot projects to demonstrate best practices


• Development of the Drone Operations Toolkit in 2019

Medicine from the Sky forms an important component of the Drones portfolio committed to transforming healthcare in rural communities in India by improving access, time and cost.

• Ensure healthcare equity for rural areas


• Reduce mortality due to avoidable circumstances


• Make the most of innovative tech to improve medical supply chains


• Revolutionize our approach to the middle & last mile


• Demonstrate feasibility of drone deliveries for vaccines


• Develop a route network, integrate with medical supply chain, facilitate steady service


• Build a case for permanent commercial operations scalable across the region

Explore our newest report: 'Medicine from the Sky: Opportunities and Lessons from Drones in Africa' -

3. Space

As the number of active satellites and population of debris increase in Lower Earth Orbit (LEO), there is a pressing need for greater multi-stakeholder dialogue between government, business and civil society actors on possible approaches and remediation measures, to maintain the economic and societal benefits of space. There is an opportunity for industry to play a bigger role in ensuring a safe and sustainable operating environment in LEO. To address this challenge, the Forum has launched a new initiative on the Future of Space Traffic Management, that aims to bring together key actors to design practical ways of addressing this problem.

The Global Future Council on Space, a community of leading global multi-stakeholder experts, explores critical challenges for the sector, such as the need for new governance frameworks like Space Traffic Management, a greater understanding of the sector’s socio-economic impact such as environment and climate monitoring as well as the future of space exploration.

4. Advanced Aerial Mobility

Advanced aerial mobility is a newly emerging industry that aims to develop and operate new air vehicles potentially capable of safe, reliable, and low-noise vertical flight. The world has seen a recent increase in the adoption of electric vertical lift aircraft for urban, suburban and rural operations. These new innovations and technologies change the way that we move cargo and people, affecting industries across the economy. These changes will challenge today's airspace monitoring systems and regulatory environment.

The World Economic Forum's Cities and Regions Coalition brings together leaders from continents around the world to collectively address this new form of transport and associated benefits and challenges.

Come discover our Principles of the Urban Sky which highlights the seven core principles we have identified as critical to the scaling of AAM. Our seven principles are: sustainability, safety, low noise, multi-modal connectivity, equity of access, local workforce development and purpose-driven data sharing.