Aviation and Aerospace Archives Initiative
Lucy Bonner and Tim Powell will be giving a talk on the Aviation and Aerospace Archives Initiative at the Institute of Historical Research on the evening of 26 January. Details can be found at https://www.history.ac.uk/events/meet-archivist-aviation-and-aerospace-archives-initiative
Jack Garside, Archivist at the Science Museum, reports that John Coppen, a Science Museum volunteer, has recently completed the listing of the photographs recording the construction and operation of the wind tunnels at the National Aeronautical Establishment (later the Royal Aircraft Establishment), Bedford.
There are 3,400 images in 14 albums and are dated between 1948 and 1959. These haven’t been digitised yet but the list has been published online at https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/documents/aa110069384/national-aeronautical-establishment-photographic-archive.
There is more on the fascinating history of RAE Bedford on the Bedford Aeronautical Heritage Group website
Aerospace Bristol, which some may remember as the super venue for the AAAI's first conference in 2020, celebrated its fifth anniversary last night with a well-attended birthday party.
After years of planning and fund-raising, the museum, a partnership of the Bristol Aero Collection Trust and the Concorde Trust, officially opened its doors on 17 October 2017. Since then it has been highly successful, despite the COVID pandemic and other challenges.
Guests had a chance to see the new Bristol Fighter exhibit, and after speeches, an opportunity to see inside the conservation workshop, dominated by the fuselage of a Bristol Freighter in RNZAF colours, or admire once again the iconic Concorde.
To mark this special year Aerospace Bristol launched its new appeal, Engineering Futures, which aims to raise £500,000 this coming year to support its award-winning Learning Programme, which has reached over 50,000 school children and young people since October 2017. More at https://aerospacebristol.org/news/2022/10/18/aerospace-bristol-launches-500000-appeal-to-help-inspire-future-engineers-as-the-museum-celebrates-its-5th-birthday.
So Happy Birthday Aerospace Bristol, here's to many more!
Work towards the survey of archive records created by airline operators has launched!
The first stage of the survey process is identifying where archive records created by airline operators are currently held – this could be in a record office, with a successor company or with current and former employees, and so on.
Initial work has begun on identifying archive records and the AAAI is now putting a public call out for information.
Do you know of the whereabouts of any archive records created by airline operators? If so, we’d be pleased to receive this information. Please forward any information to survey@aviationarchives.uk.
We are delighted to report that the Aviation and Aerospace Archives Initiative has been awarded a grant of £15,000 by The National Archives. This grant, from the Collaborate and Innovate Networks for Change strand, will enable us to work on three distinct areas:
We have added some further resources to our Guidance for Custodians of Archival Resources. At the request of members we have provided links to a number of good practical and accessible video guides to some aspects of the curation of archives, such as digitisation procedures and tips.
These are all listed in the Resources section of the Guidance and links are also in the appropriate places of the sections of the document.
As more resources of this kind are provided, we shall add to this list.
Following its last meeting, the AAAI has adopted a governing document to formalise certain arrangements and manage business more effectively. This governing document will allow the Initiative to pursue a more pro-active policy in areas such as fund-raising.