From Science Fiction to Strategic Foresight: A Cultural Blueprint for Innovation in Aerospace

Advances in aerospace increasingly depend not only on engineering breakthroughs but on the capacity to imagine futures beyond current constraints. This paper proposes a structured framework for integrating science fiction into strategic foresight and aerospace innovation. Drawing on methods from futures studies, design fiction, and scenario planning, the paper demonstrates how speculative narratives can serve as cognitive testbeds for identifying hidden assumptions, surfacing ethical and geopolitical risks, and expanding the design space for next-generation aerospace systems. Through case studies spanning crewed mission interfaces, planetary base concept development, and organizational foresight workshops, the analysis shows how narrative-based approaches reveal socio-technical dynamics and long-horizon challenges often overlooked in traditional roadmapping. The paper presents a blueprint for embedding imaginative literacy into engineering culture, including practical methods for extracting technical, structural, and governance signals from speculative scenarios. By reframing fiction as a strategic instrument rather than entertainment, this work argues that aerospace organizations can strengthen anticipation, enhance interdisciplinary collaboration, and build innovation pathways more resilient to uncertainty.