As one of the newly developing intelligent/smart materials, shape memory alloys (SMAs) have become an important material and have broad application prospects. With smart structures, the integration of SMAs as actuators and sensors in structural components, has drawn significant attention and interest in the aerospace field. In this paper, the research status of SMAs at home and abroad in recent years was reviewed, including the characteristics, classifica-tion, investigation progress and applications in the aerospace field. Finally, the development trend prospects for SMAs was also presented.