The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and its predecessor organisations have played a major role in the aeronautical and aerospace community. Through seminars, lectures, mulitple publications, and awards it has recorded and reported on the milestones of human flight.

The Institute of Aeronautical Sciences (IAS) moved to New York, NY in 1946 where a library and a museum were established, which the general public had access to. Major Lester Gardner had steered the institute for many years before he retired and left his post to Samuel Paul Johnston. Under Johnston's leadership the institute opened new locations on the West Coast (San Diego and Los Angeles, CA) and accumulated a large quantity of literature relating to the aeronautics industry.

Due to shrinking numbers in membership and because for push to focus on space during the Cold War, the IAS leadership decided to shift their name from Aeronautical to Aerospace Sciences. Their main publication was named the Journal of the Aero/Space Sciences instead of Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences.