Abstract: A tmospheric turbulence and wind shear are aviation hazards which damage the flying qualities and safety of aircraft. It has been reported that low level atmospheric disturbances were responsible for a number of air accidents. A brief review given in this paper includes researches on the mechanizm of turbulence, development of engineering mathematic models for describing the atmospheric turbulence, such as the non-Gaussian model, the discrete gust model and the modified von Karman model. In addition, the experimental techniques for measurement of the turbulence in the air or for modelling the turbulence near the ground in wind tunnels are also considered. The various methods for evaluating the responses of aircraft to atmospheric turbulence and the ways for simulating the turbulence in the time domain are summarized. It is noticed that the current research works tend to stressing the problems related to low level winds. Great progress has been extended in improving the mathematical wind models and the methods for calculating and analyzing the effect of the wind on the flight and in investigating the flying qualities of aircraft in the presence of winds. Recent research works concerning flight in atmospheric turbulence and wind shear are also reviewed. Then, the wind shear models, such as the 3D-downburst model and the worst case wind model are introduced. Finally, some suggestions are proposed for further research in this respect.