The extent of digitalization is increasing in aeronautical manufacturing, but workers are still the main part engaged in production activities of assembly. Due to the complex structure, numerous parts and large workload, higher technical requirement for workers of assembly is placed. Projection indication technology is one of the important approaches to improve the degree of digitalization and the production efficiency of manual assembly process. Firstly, starting from the implementation principle, the applicability of projection indication in the field of assisted assembly is described. Secondly, three main technical contents including system calibration, visual sensing and projection mapping are explained. Then, the applications of projection indication in the field of aircraft manufacturing are presented and its development trends are outlined. Finally, technical challenges are summarized on the basis of sorting out the domestic research status.