With the development of the aviation field, research on intellectual property has become an indispensable part of the civil aircraft design process, and patents reflect the development direction and level of technology to a large extent. Boeing and Airbus occupy an important position in the field of civil aircraft, while China's civil aircraft is in the early stages of growth. Based on this status, the research has been conducted on the application trends, layout distribution and key development directions of competitors’ patents in the civil aircraft filed based on the patent database. The history and experience of civil aircraft development was drawn, the methods of patent layout was summarized , and the current key technologies in civil aircraft field was analyzed . The results show that the patent layout timeline of the two companies in China is quite consistent with the development line of the domestic civil aircraft industry. The development of China's civil aircraft can quickly improve the civil aircraft through the development of key technology, comprehensive layout of patents, in-depth analysis and excavation, and cross-border integration and transformation. The research provides reference for the high-quality patent layout and intellectual property management strategy of design and manufacturing industry in domestic civil aircraft.