• Society of Licensed Aircraft Engineers and Technologists

The Society of Licenced Aircraft Engineers (SLAE), initially proposed in 1943, was established in 1944 as a professional society of airframe and engine aircraft engineers (flight, ground and maintenance) who held a licence or certificate issued by a competent authority. Membership was graded, with Members requiring a licence and Associates being admitted with a certificate. By 1945 the organisation had recruited over 1,250 members to whom it offered a journal, lectures in London and at branches, and access to a technical library and an employment bureau. In 1953 the Society introduced examinations for its associate membership grade and in 1955 those examinations gave certain exemptions in relation to the Air Registration Board examinations. The Society went onto become one of the Engineering Council’s nominated bodies. In 1962 the Society was reconstituted as the Society of Licensed Aircraft Engineers and Technologists (SLAET). In 1987 the Society amalgamated with the Royal Aeronautical Society and became the Society’s Airworthiness & Maintenance Group, with some of its functions also being taken by a technicians’ committee.