Under a contract (No.F33615‐00‐C‐5009) with the U.S. Air Force Materials Lab, Cytec Carbon Fibers, LLC is conducting a program to identify high risk, high payoff thermal management applications for the insertion of high thermal conductivity carbon composite materials in future space and military aircraft. The program involves the identification of relevant design requirements, the design of components for thermal management applications utilizing the most appropriate high conductivity carbon composite material solution, the fabrication of prototype test articles, performance and characterization tests on the prototype articles, and test data correlation of measured results. The final step in the program requires end‐user acceptance or qualification testing of the designed components. Within this program, several different satellite and military aircraft thermal management applications have been selected and are currently in various stages of development. This paper will provide a summary list of the selected applications, a description of the thermal management materials employed, and a technical overview of some example projects. © 2004 American Institute of Physics