-
When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
A new Star Eastman A-2 missing mark?
- Thread starter warguy
- Start date
Pilot
Well-Known Member
Terrific jacket...wow!
Pilot
Well-Known Member
Edward
Well-Known Member
these A/N Inspectors are a hard bunch to research. there seems to be little to no information about them. I did find this interesting piece about the inspection process though...
After entering World War II in December 1941, the United States enacted legislation to help gear the civilian economy to military production. At that time, military contracts were typically awarded to the manufacturer that submitted the lowest bid. Products were inspected on delivery to ensure conformance to requirements.
During this period, quality became an important safety issue. Unsafe military equipment was clearly unacceptable, and the U.S. armed forces inspected virtually every unit produced to ensure that it was safe for operation. This practice required huge inspection forces and caused problems in recruiting and retaining competent inspection personnel.
To ease the problems without compromising product safety, the armed forces began to use sampling inspection to replace unit-by-unit inspection. With the aid of industry consultants, particularly from Bell Laboratories, they adapted sampling tables and published them in a military standard, known as Mil-Std-105. These tables were incorporated into the military contracts so suppliers clearly understood what they were expected to produce.
The armed forces also helped suppliers improve quality by sponsoring training courses in Walter Shewhart’s statistical quality control (SQC) techniques.
But while the training led to some quality improvement in some organizations, most companies had little motivation to truly integrate the techniques. As long as government contracts paid the bills, organizations’ top priority remained meeting production deadlines. What’s more, most SQC programs were terminated once the government contracts came to an end.
After entering World War II in December 1941, the United States enacted legislation to help gear the civilian economy to military production. At that time, military contracts were typically awarded to the manufacturer that submitted the lowest bid. Products were inspected on delivery to ensure conformance to requirements.
During this period, quality became an important safety issue. Unsafe military equipment was clearly unacceptable, and the U.S. armed forces inspected virtually every unit produced to ensure that it was safe for operation. This practice required huge inspection forces and caused problems in recruiting and retaining competent inspection personnel.
To ease the problems without compromising product safety, the armed forces began to use sampling inspection to replace unit-by-unit inspection. With the aid of industry consultants, particularly from Bell Laboratories, they adapted sampling tables and published them in a military standard, known as Mil-Std-105. These tables were incorporated into the military contracts so suppliers clearly understood what they were expected to produce.
The armed forces also helped suppliers improve quality by sponsoring training courses in Walter Shewhart’s statistical quality control (SQC) techniques.
But while the training led to some quality improvement in some organizations, most companies had little motivation to truly integrate the techniques. As long as government contracts paid the bills, organizations’ top priority remained meeting production deadlines. What’s more, most SQC programs were terminated once the government contracts came to an end.
Edward
Well-Known Member
The A/N inspector stamp is almost dime sized. I read there were two sizes of inspector stamp; 5/8ths inch and 5/16ths. the smaller was used on tiny items (like I have on the neck of the A-4 walk around bottle) and the slightly larger 5/8 was used on clothing and boxes. there was a modern reproduction stamp that came up for sale from time to time but are not size accurate as they produced them too large. With the hundreds of hired inspectors, each with their own unique identifier code below the A/N symbol, one would think one of these vintage inspector stamps would come up on market. I suppose they are in a desk drawer in an old abandoned factory or in a landfill now 
Edward
Well-Known Member
the Hap Arnold logo also had two different versions. we mostly see the more elaborate wings on reproductions today but my vintage NOS 1942 A-4 flight suit has a much simpler wing style logo stamped on the shoulder and inside:
1942 authentic stamp:
the more elaborate wings: (repro shown here)
1942 authentic stamp:
the more elaborate wings: (repro shown here)
Edward
Well-Known Member
the only other pertinent info I could find on the AN inspector's stamp was through an aviation archaeology website that researched crashed airplanes in which they list dozens of aircraft inspection stamps on various parts that help them identify wreckage which included WWII stamps. While most inspection stamps were specifically from aircraft industry parts producers (Bendix, General Electric, Pratt & Whitney, etc) or the aircraft company itself (Boeing, Cesna, McDonnell Douglas, etc) there were a couple of our typical AN inspector stamps that they referred to as Government QA (Customer Inspection) This would suggest outside government hired civilian employee in my opinion. (And since I can not find any further information about these people I think they were the "Men in Black" )
)
