Elastoplastic investigations of aerospace aluminum are important in the development of an understanding of the possible cyclic transient effects and their contribution to the material performance under cyclic loading. Cyclic plasticity can occur in an aerospace aluminum component or structure depending on the loading conditions and the presence of external and internal discontinuities. Therefore, it is vital that the cyclic transient effects of aerospace aluminum are recognized and understood. This study investigates experimentally the cyclic elastoplastic performance of aluminum 7075-T6 loaded in symmetric strain control, and asymmetric stress and strain control. A combination of cyclic hardening and softening was noticed from high strain amplitude symmetric strain-controlled tests and at low stress amplitude asymmetric stress-controlled tests. From asymmetric strain control results, the extent of mean stress relaxation depended on the size of the strain amplitude. Additionally, saturation of the ratcheting strain (plastic shakedown) was also found to occur during asymmetric stress control tests. The experimental results were further analyzed using published microstructure research from the past two decades to provide added explanation of the micro-mechanism contribution to the cyclic transient behavior.