Even before we got there, the very idea of getting to space captivated researchers in the most technologically advanced nations, most notably Germany, whose scientists beat everyone to nearly practical rocket planes—the Messerschmitt Me 163 was an operational rocket plane during the latter years of World War II—and who were just slightly too late, luckily, in their development of operational jet fighters that would likely have air superiority over Europe had they been more numerous earlier in the conflict.
While space was kind of a dead-end for aviation in terms of crossover propulsion technology, the advances in materials, aerodynamics, craft control and communications that modern space programs developed created direct benefit to aviation.
Manufacturing advances also drove improvements in aviation technology, chiefly in the refinement of metallurgy and the honing of very fine-tolerance machining tools that were put to use in ever-more-efficient, lightweight and powerful turbine engines, which have defined atmospheric aviation in the last 70 years.
We shouldn’t forget that space and the satellites we’ve put there have given us previously unimaginably powerful tools for navigation (GPS and other satellite systems), weather detection and avoidance, and communications.
