The Aviation and Aerospace Archives Initiative

I recently attended the Air Britain AGM at the de Havilland Museum , London Colney and the society archive was mentioned as an on-going but slow project , which probably covers most group archives ! A recent email gave a few more details ;

Air-Britain have been heavily involved in the “Aviation and Aerospace Archives Initiative” (AAAI) www.aviationarchives.uk/ , with two Air-Britain trustees on the steering group. One area in which we have become involved is a survey to establish where relevant archives for aircraft manufacturers are being held, to help researchers locate these when needed. It is planned for the survey to be put on-line and as an introduction, we are looking for somebody who could help in the following specific areas
• a brief overall history of the aircraft manufacturing sector in the UK
• a guide to some of the sector specific archives that researchers might come across in an aircraft manufacturer’s archive (like the different kinds of aircraft technical drawings, technical reports and technical booklets).

And from the AAAI website ;

The Aviation and Aerospace Archives Initiative began in November 2018, when a group of archivists and others interested in the preservation of and access to Britain's archival records relating to the history of flight and the industry and technology around it, met at the Leonardo works, Yeovil.
Since then a number of general meetings of the interest group have been held, together with meetings of the subcommittees established to organise the conference, prepare guidance and look at surveying archives in this area.
On 12 February 2020 the Initiative held an aviation archives conference at Aerospace Bristol.
The Aviation and Aerospace Archives Initiative has been led by The National Archives and the National Aerospace Library/Royal Aeronautical Society.
Other participants to date include representatives of Aerospace Bristol, the Air Britain Trust, Aviation Heritage UK, BAE Systems, Brooklands Museum, the Business Archives Council, Leonardo, the RAF Museum and the Rochester Avionics Archive.

Link here ; www.aviationarchives.uk/ .