Aerospace, Aviation & Defense
Aerospace, Aviation & Defense
As home to the headquarters for two international airlines, two of the world’s busiest airports, 15 active military bases, headquarters for the Army Futures Command and NASA’s world-famous Johnson Space Center, Texas is one of the most important locations for the global aerospace and aviation industry. The broad range of aerospace activities in Texas includes fighter planes and helicopter assembly, navigation instrument development, advanced space-flight research, military pilot training and commercial space travel.
This industry has a substantial presence in many regions of the state. In North Texas, the Dallas-Fort Worth region boasts the state’s largest concentration of aerospace manufacturing workers, as well as the headquarters of American Airlines and Southwest Airlines. San Antonio, known as “Military City, USA”, is home to tens of thousands of U.S. Air Force personnel and is a national hub for aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO).
On the Gulf Coast, Houston is the legendary home to NASA mission control and dozens of related spaceflight contractor firms. Elsewhere in the state are manufacturing facilities for various Fortune 500 aerospace companies, hundreds of major Fixed Base Operators (FBOs), numerous defense contractors and trailblazers in commercial space tourism.
Aerospace, aviation and defense companies with a strong presence in Texas include:
| Lockheed Martin | American Airlines |
| Southwest Airlines | Raytheon |
| General Electric | BAE Systems |
| Bell Helicopter | Blue Origin |
| SpaceX | Boeing |
Snapshot: Aerospace, Aviation & Defense (2025)