Air Inspection Department (AID)

Knowledgeable for sure, but I guess we will only know for certain if someone comes up with a dated letter head or contact of employment.

Would a period advert do?
http://www.flightglobal.com/PDFArchive/View/1940/1940%20-%202875.html

I had to double check this for a piece just going off for publication and I had it down as “department” until I saw this thread. Thanks

Allan

Hi Baz,

PQS is soooo yesterday:D It was PQS, then I think it became SPS QA, then TES-DQAG, then DQAG and now it’s just plain old DQA. Mind you it will probably have changed its name again by the time you’ve finished reading this;)

i used to work at Marshalls, and it was very confusing, you’d just get used to one name then you’d go and change it again!

Hi Baz,

PQS is soooo yesterday:D It was PQS, then I think it became SPS QA, then TES-DQAG, then DQAG and now it’s just plain old DQA. Mind you it will probably have changed its name again by the time you’ve finished reading this;)

😀 😉
Hi 12J
Actually I gave up when it changed from AQD !!

Cheers Baz

I thought it was called (something like !!) PQS last week !!
Or has it changed again;)
DQA was surely 80’s -90’s

Regards Baz

Hi Baz,

PQS is soooo yesterday:D It was PQS, then I think it became SPS QA, then TES-DQAG, then DQAG and now it’s just plain old DQA. Mind you it will probably have changed its name again by the time you’ve finished reading this;)

Does anyone know the meaning of the various letters and numbers stenciled or stamped onto aircraft parts by the AID?

Here are two examples, one stencilled (courtesy of “Chumpy”) and one stamped in a solder blob.

Thanks

SM

The left hand blob of lead/solder stamped ‘6S’.

‘6S’ is the Supermarine identifier and used right through the Spitfire production of Supermarine built components.

Mark

Hi Chaps,

I was a member of the very same organisation although now known by a totally different name. (it seemed we changed our name every few weeks:rolleyes: ) AID is now known as DQA (Defence Quality Assurance) .

I thought it was called (something like !!) PQS last week !!
Or has it changed again;)
DQA was surely 80’s -90’s

Regards Baz

Mark,

Knowledgeable for sure, but I guess we will only know for certain if someone comes up with a dated letter head or contact of employment. Still, i’m not going to loose slep over it, my original question was simply to ascertain whether there was cryptic information in the stenciled letters.

The guys at NP may well be correct. Company names as ‘legal entities’ can last a long time and survive multiple take-overs. I kmow that if I just reported data on my parent company in the year end reports I’d miss a lot. There are many names still lurking in legal documents that date back year and have to be reported.

Cheers

SM

I think we may have resolution.

Old habits, and nomenclatures, die hard.

Noted historian and author Bruce Robertson worked for the AID.

In the November 1993 copy of Aeroplane Monthly he wrote the first of a three part article on the AID.

I quote:-

After the run down of the AID (Aeronautical Inspection Department) in 1919 it was reconstituted as a Directorate in the Air Ministry. In 1922 Air Cdre F C Halahan CMG DSO MVO was appointed its Director.

Although Aston Martin just last year stopped manufacturing cars at Newport Pagnell, ask any of the old time body builders where they work or worked and it is always ‘Tickfords’, a name that technically was changed in the early 1960’s when David Brown bought the company.

Mark

Hi Chaps,

I was a member of the very same organisation although now known by a totally different name. (it seemed we changed our name every few weeks:rolleyes: ) AID is now known as DQA (Defence Quality Assurance) and one of its key roles in the aviation world is to inspect and underwrite a contractors work on an aircraft prior to flight, basically giving 3rd part insurance if god forbid anything was to go wrong. And believe you me we did/do find things wrong prior to flight:eek:

AID was formed during the First World war to introduce consistency of supply and quality between all the various manufacturers, and required all manufacture and testing to be signed off as fit for government use. At one stage AID numbered thousands, currently it stands at just over 200 nationwide and across all defence procurement and is due to be reduced still further.

Mark,

Still very confusing as Mr. F. M McWade is refered to as working for the Aeronautical Inspection Department in the 1930 Air Ministry press release on the R.100 flight to Canada,

http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/learn/Press%20Releases/R100/Page5.htm

Cheers

SM

Mark,

Google, ah Google.

How about this;

http://www.aqd.org.uk/Docs/AID%20-%20An%20early%20history.rtf

Cheers

SM

Google – Aeronautical Inspection Department ..137 hits 🙂

It seems a change of name some time between the WW1 and WWII but I suspect in a number of instances ‘department’ is carry over and a word more in common usage.

In my day, 1960’s, AID Inspectors worked in the ‘Inspection department’ of respective Ministry suppliers.

Mark

PS

Here is a ‘Directorate’ reference to the R100 Airship in 1929 in the National Archives

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATLN=6&CATID=1760488&SearchInit=4&CATREF=AIR20%2F146

AID must have started ithe first world war, as i have a Vickers propeller that has an AID stamp on it dated 13/5/1917.
Dave

Mark,

Google, ah Google.

How about this;

http://www.aqd.org.uk/Docs/AID%20-%20An%20early%20history.rtf

Cheers

SM

Mark,

Just checked Orlebar, writing in ’34, and he says Aeronautical Inspection Department. So I’ll meet you half way 🙂

By the way the AID marks I posted are on S1595 (stencil) and N248 (stamp)

Cheers

SM

SM

I think you will find it has always been ‘Aeronautical Inspection Directorate’.

A Google will give you an insight. 402 hits. 🙂

Mark

Mark,

Just checked Orlebar, writing in ’34, and he says Aeronautical Inspection Department. So I’ll meet you half way 🙂

By the way the AID marks I posted are on S1595 (stencil) and N248 (stamp)

Cheers

SM

Mark,

I wasn’t sure so did a quick check, and the first ref. I found was in Lettice Curtiss’ autobiography, so I went with that. I guess it could have changed its name as he years went by, as with the ARC. Was the term Directorate in common use in the UK back in the ’20s?

Cheers

SM

My understanding was always:-

Aeronautical Inspection Directorate.

The following digits are often the individual inspectors identity.

Mark

Inspectors, industrial civil servants of (MAP,MoS,MoA,Mintech…as it evolved), each held a personalised signature-mark, by which he signed-off new build or repaired items. His job was oversight/supervision of contractors’ work. I believe all these images are of those “buy-offs” and have no especial meaning.