Abstract

This study analyzes technological trends in Korea’s aviation industry using patent data. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling is applied to domestic aviation technology patents to identify major technology areas and emerging themes, yielding ten topics. Yearly changes in each topic are examined through linear regression to quantify trend directions. The results show that “unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operation” is a promising and expanding field, while “rotor” and “manufacturing process” technologies exhibit declining trends, indicating that Korea’s aviation technology focus is shifting toward UAV-related domains. In addition, the technological competitiveness of patent applicants is assessed, revealing that established technology areas are largely dominated by global corporations, whereas competition among leading Korean firms is intensifying in emerging market fields. These findings provide evidence-based guidance for understanding Korea’s aviation technology landscape and for setting future R&D strategy priorities.