The Aerospace & Defense Data Guide (2026)

Few industries sit on data this deep. Of the 43 datasets Datadory catalogs for Aerospace & Defense, 33 are primary records spanning civil-aviation operations, safety, defense economics, procurement and space; the other ten are related records drawn from neighboring industries. Twenty-eight distinct publishers supply the pool, from civil aviation authorities to peace-research institutes.

Four clusters dominate. Operations and airspace: EUROCONTROL runs two quality-score-9 portals (ANS Performance and the Aviation Data & Dashboard) covering delays, traffic, efficiency and emissions back to 2010, the FAA maintains a 316,086-record US aircraft registry, and OurAirports charts roughly 85,900 airports joined to runway, navaid and frequency files. Safety: the NTSB database reaches back to 1962 and the Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network to 1919. Defense economics and procurement: SIPRI's twin databases (military expenditure 1949-2025, arms transfers 1950-2025), NATO's 32-country expenditure compendium, the European Defence Agency's EU-27 series and SAM.gov contract awards from FY2007 onward. Space: Space-Track's catalogue of roughly 51,500 tracked objects, NASA's 36,250-dataset CKAN portal, Launch Library 2 and UNOOSA's treaty register.

Quality tracks the depth of the record. The slice averages 7.52 on Datadory's 10-point rubric against a catalog-wide average of 7.81 across all 1,744 datasets, and 16 of the 33 primary records score 8 or higher - nine of them a full 9. Formats lean XLSX, CSV and Parquet. The full pool, with coverage and field-level detail for every record, lives in the aerospace-defense data hub.

The 33 primary records sort into five working groups: European air-traffic operations, safety records, defense economics and procurement, space situational awareness, and commercial market forecasts.

Airspace operations and registries

• ANS Performance (ANSperf) - ATC Performance Data (quality 9). EUROCONTROL's Performance Review Unit portal publishes en-route ATFM delay and IFR flights series from January 2011 by state, ANSP and airport, plus flight efficiency from January 2014 and emissions from 2019. The Airport Traffic workbook alone holds roughly 975,000 data rows across 2014-2026; the en-route delay workbook adds about 274,000. Series ship as XLSX, CSV and Parquet.
• EUROCONTROL Aviation Data & Dashboard (quality 9). The complementary portal: daily dashboards plus 20+ published series back to 2010, with CO2 per state from January 2010 and airport traffic from January 2016. Its ADRR archive holds 25M+ flights of 4D trajectory data, and the emissions series alone spans roughly 47 MB of rows.
• FAA Aircraft Registry (quality 9). Carries 316,086 active N-numbers plus about 2.7 million deregistered history records. Private owners can withhold owner names under 49 U.S.C. 44114(b), so some fields are blank.
• OurAirports Data (quality 9). Every known world airport - about 85,900 - joined one-to-many to runway, navaid and frequency files.
• OpenFlights Airport, Airline & Route Data (quality 6). A static snapshot of 10,000+ airports, 5,888 airlines and 67,663 routes, frozen at its June 2014 baseline - pair it with OurAirports for the current airport state.
• FAA Air Traffic By The Numbers (quality 6). The annual one-page NAS fact sheet: about 15 headline figures on airports, controllers, flights and economic impact, national aggregates only.

Safety and airworthiness

• NTSB Aviation Accident & Incident Database (quality 9). The authoritative US civil aviation accident record from 1962 to present, split into a pre-1982 series and a modern series, so long-run trend work draws on both.
• Aviation Safety Network Database (quality 7). Flight Safety Foundation's archive of over 23,000 airliner, corporate jet and military-transport accidents since 1919, plus a 258,000-record WikiBase and 15,000+ drone sighting reports.
• EASA Airworthiness Directives Database (quality 7). 17,366 publications observed on 2026-08-21, each with one or two directive documents attached.
• EASA Aircraft Products & Type Certificates (quality 7). Roughly 5,927 type-certificated product rows across 11 categories - 2,163 engines, 1,282 small aeroplanes, 997 propellers, 229 large transport aeroplanes and 189 VTOL among them.

Defense economics and procurement

• SIPRI Military Expenditure Database (quality 9). Consistent annual spending series for 170+ countries from 1949 to 2025 in six measures - local currency, constant and current USD, share of GDP, per capita and share of government spending - the longest continuous series in the pool.
• SIPRI Arms Transfers Database (quality 9). The only authoritative global record of major conventional arms transfers, 1950-2025, measured in trend-indicator values across roughly 260 supplier and recipient entities.
• World Bank Military Expenditure Indicator API (quality 9). Republishes the SIPRI series across eight MS.MIL indicators in total; the headline military-expenditure share-of-GDP measure alone holds 17,490 observations.
• NATO Defence Expenditure Data (quality 8). An annual compendium covering all 32 members x 12 years (2014-2025 estimates) x 7 indicator tables, with archived editions reaching back to 1963.
• European Defence Agency - Defence Data (quality 7). EU-27 expenditure, investment, personnel and collaboration statistics collected from national ministries, 2005-2025.
• SAM.gov Entity Registration & Contract Awards (quality 8). Roughly 500,000+ registered entities and millions of contract award transactions from FY2007 onward via the FPDS migration, filterable by NAICS code.
• The Military Balance (IISS) (quality 7). A 450+ page volume covering 170+ countries, with Military Balance+ adding equipment datasets and budget forecasts for 30 countries representing 88% of global defence expenditure.
• Global Firepower Military Rankings (quality 6). Annual PowerIndex scores for 145 countries with 60+ factor detail pages and 21 years of archived editions.

Space

• Space-Track Space Catalog API (quality 8). The official US Space Command catalogue: ~51,500 tracked objects (about 12,000 active payloads, 22,900 debris and 16,600 unpublished analyst objects) with more than 138 million historical element sets on record.
• NASA Open Data Portal (quality 9). 36,250 CKAN dataset records as of August 2026, spanning aeronautics, earth science and missions.
• NASA Open APIs (quality 8). Sixteen services ranging from APOD imagery (June 1995 onward) to near-earth-object feeds.
• NASA Technical Reports Server (quality 8). 646,659 citation records of NASA-funded reports and papers with full-text PDFs.
• Launch Library 2 API (Space Devs) (quality 8). About 7,900+ launch records from Sputnik's 1957 debut to scheduled future launches.
• UNOOSA Register of Objects Launched into Outer Space (quality 6). The treaty-mandated UN register since 1962; approximately 85% of all objects ever launched are registered.
• BryceTech Space Industry Reports (quality 7). About 100 documents from 2009 to 2026, including Start-Up Space venture funding tracking and the 34-page Smallsats by the Numbers 2026 edition.
• DVIDS - Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (quality 7). Over 1.8 million military images, videos and publications, searchable by unit, branch and combatant command.

Commercial market forecasts

• Airbus Global Market Forecast (quality 7). The 2026-2045 edition slices traffic, fleet and deliveries by region, country, aircraft size class and origin-destination flow.
• Boeing Commercial Market Outlook (quality 7). Published for 65+ years, the current edition covers 2026-2045 across eleven regions and more than 50 origin-destination flows.

Ten recurring jobs define how teams work this pool, and each maps to named sources:

1. Size and benchmark defense budgets across countries. Join the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database (1949-2025, six measures) with NATO Defence Expenditure Data (32 members x 12 years x 7 tables) and European Defence Agency Defence Data (EU-27, 2005-2025).
2. Trace global arms-trade flows and supplier relationships. SIPRI's Arms Transfers Database measures every recorded transfer since 1950 in trend-indicator values across roughly 260 supplier/recipient entities, exported as CSV.
3. Run aircraft ownership and due-diligence lookups. Pair the FAA Aircraft Registry - 316,086 active N-numbers plus ~2.7 million deregistered records - with EASA Aircraft Products & Type Certificates for EU-register validation.
4. Monitor MRO compliance exposure. Screen the EASA Airworthiness Directives Database (17,366 publications) against specific aircraft types; each directive carries one or two PDF/ZIP attachments.
5. Backtest aerospace and defense equity factors. The World Bank Military Expenditure Indicator serves decades of SIPRI-sourced spending history, with 17,490 observations on the share-of-GDP measure alone.
6. Build flight-tracking apps and aviation analytics. ADS-B Exchange streams state vectors at 250 ms to 5 s intervals from 25,000+ community receivers, with subscriber trace history back to July 2016 - the deepest live-movement record in this slice.
7. Model accident risk and long-run safety trends. Combine NTSB case files from 1962 with Aviation Safety Network records reaching back to 1919 (23,000+ occurrences).
8. Power space situational awareness and launch-schedule tooling. Space-Track element sets (~51,500 objects), Launch Library 2 event records (~7,900 launches) and the UNOOSA register (~85% of all launched objects).
9. Analyze airport networks and catchments. OurAirports runway, navaid and frequency files (~85,900 airports) alongside OpenFlights' 67,663-route snapshot.
10. Mine US federal procurement pipelines for contractor opportunities. SAM.gov contract award transactions from FY2007 onward, filtered by NAICS code.

Even a pool this deep has edges worth planning around.

OpenFlights' route snapshot froze in June 2014, so route-network baselines stop there - anything newer has to come from the EUROCONTROL traffic series. OurAirports publishes only the latest airport state, not history, so longitudinal airport studies need their own archiving. UNOOSA releases registrations as PDF documents rather than structured files, so register-wide analysis means working through them one by one. And the FAA registry blanks owner fields for private owners who withhold personally identifiable information under 49 U.S.C. 44114(b).

None of that blurs the record's shape: 33 primary datasets across five clusters, sixteen scoring 8 or higher, with the deepest series - SIPRI's military expenditure ledger - running unbroken from 1949 to 2025. The full pool sits on the aerospace-defense data hub.

Data Scientists & ML Engineers. They hunt documented schemas, long series and stable field dictionaries - searches like "where to get training data for aerospace & defense models" and "datasets with documented schema and complete history." Across the catalog, 666 of the 1,744 datasets reach top-tier relevance for this persona; aerospace-defense leads all industries at 32 relevant sources. In this slice the EUROCONTROL pair carries delay, traffic and emissions series, the FAA registry covers 316,086 active N-numbers, and NTSB accident cases reach back to 1962. Modelers should start from the data scientists hub for the catalog-wide ranking.

Market Researchers & Consultants. Their queries read "aerospace & defense market size by country data" and "industry statistics for consulting decks." Catalog-wide, 786 datasets rate as strongly relevant - and aerospace & defense leads that persona's ranking with 33 relevant datasets. NATO's compendium makes client-ready defence-burden comparisons (32 members x 12 years x 7 tables), while Airbus and Boeing publish the 20-year fleet outlooks analysts quote. The market researchers hub ranks these against alternatives.

Investors & Quant Researchers. The standard query is "how do quants use aerospace & defense data." Thirty-one datasets in this industry rate relevant for them, 16 strongly so. SIPRI-derived spending series run unbroken from 1949 across 170+ countries, deep enough to anchor long-run factor research, and BryceTech's Start-Up Space reports track venture funding by year.

Journalists, Academics & Students. This is the best-covered persona in the slice: 33 of 33 relevant datasets rate strongly. Searches like "aerospace & defense statistics for journalism" resolve inside government and institutional records - NTSB accident files, DVIDS imagery with over 1.8 million assets, NASA portals, and SIPRI series designed for citation.

1. Start from the documented core. Sixteen of the 33 primary records score 8 or higher on Datadory's rubric, nine of them a full 9, and 28 distinct publishers supply the pool - enough to anchor a working stack on the best-documented records alone.
2. Anchor the budget layer. Build on the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database (170+ countries, 1949-2025, six measures), add the World Bank Military Expenditure Indicator for 17,490 share-of-GDP observations, and keep NATO's compendium for the 2%-of-GDP framing clients expect.
3. Add the operations layer. EUROCONTROL's en-route ATFM delay series starts January 2011 and its airport traffic series January 2014, while the FAA registry contributes 316,086 active N-numbers plus about 2.7 million deregistered records - delivered daily, weekly, or hourly, your call.
4. Model safety longitudinally. NTSB cases run 1962-present across a pre-1982 and a modern series, and the Aviation Safety Network extends airliner accident history to 1919, giving six overlapping decades for validation work.
5. Cover space situational awareness. Space-Track catalogues roughly 51,500 objects with more than 138 million historical element sets, Launch Library 2 logs about 7,900 launches, and UNOOSA's treaty register documents roughly 85% of everything ever launched.
6. Match granularity to the question. Coverage ranges from transaction-level contract awards (SAM.gov, FY2007 onward) to annual national aggregates (SIPRI, NATO, European Defence Agency); choosing the right grain first avoids joins that cannot close.
7. Know the one record without a substitute. ADS-B Exchange streams state vectors at 250 ms to 5 s intervals from 25,000+ receivers with subscriber trace history back to July 2016 - the deepest live-movement feed in the slice, and the natural starting point for flight-tracking products.

Datadory catalogs 1,744 datasets across its industries, averaging 7.81 out of 10 on its quality rubric, with 62.8% of records scoring 8 or higher. Aerospace & Defense lands slightly below that mean at 7.52, dragged down by five thinly documented reference sites that score 5 to 7 - while sixteen of its 33 primary records clear 8, nine of them a full 9.

The table below collects the figures worth quoting.

Which dataset tracks military expenditure for every country?

The SIPRI Military Expenditure Database covers over 170 countries annually from 1949 to 2025 across six measures: local currency, constant and current USD, share of GDP, per capita and share of government spending. The World Bank Military Expenditure Indicator republishes the same series, holding 17,490 observations on the share-of-GDP measure alone. How granular is ADS-B flight tracking data?

ADS-B Exchange streams state vectors at 250 ms to 5 s intervals from 25,000+ community receivers, with subscriber trace history back to July 2016. It is the one feed in this slice whose depth no archived alternative matches. Which aviation accident database goes back the farthest?

The Aviation Safety Network Database indexes airliner, corporate jet and military-transport accidents from 1919 to present, with over 23,000 occurrence records. For US civil aviation specifically, the NTSB Aviation Accident & Incident Database reaches back to 1962, split into pre-1982 and modern series. How many US-registered aircraft are on record?

The FAA Aircraft Registry holds 316,086 active N-numbers plus about 2.7 million deregistered history records, so ownership lookups can screen both current and retired tails. Some owner fields are blank because private owners can withhold personally identifiable information under 49 U.S.C. 44114(b). What data source tracks NATO defence spending by country?

NATO's annual Defence Expenditure compendium covers all 32 member countries with 2014 to 2025 estimates across seven indicator tables: spending in national currency and constant prices, share of GDP, per-capita figures, equipment spend and personnel strength. Archived editions reach back to 1963. How many objects does the Space-Track catalogue track?

Roughly 51,500: about 12,000 active payloads, 22,900 debris objects and 16,600 unpublished analyst objects, backed by more than 138 million historical element sets. Space-Track is the official US Space Command catalogue behind those numbers. Which sources track European air traffic delays?

Two EUROCONTROL portals complement each other: the ANS Performance portal carries en-route ATFM delay and IFR flights series from January 2011 by state, ANSP and airport, while the Aviation Data & Dashboard adds daily dashboards and 20+ published series back to 2010. The Airport Traffic workbook alone holds roughly 975,000 data rows across 2014-2026. How deep does EASA airworthiness coverage run?

The EASA Airworthiness Directives Database listed 17,366 publications as of August 2026, each with one or two directive documents attached. Companion type-certificate records cover roughly 5,927 certificated product rows across 11 categories, from 2,163 engines to 189 VTOL aircraft.

1. aerospace-defense data hub - the full 43-record pool on one index page, with quality scores, coverage and field-level detail for every dataset in this guide.
2. data scientists - how modeling teams rank all 1,744 cataloged datasets on schemas, coverage and training suitability; 666 clear the top tier, and aerospace-defense leads all industries at 32 relevant sources.
3. market researchers - sourcing guidance for client-ready analysis, where NATO's 32-country compendium carries the defence-burden chapter.