AUSTRALIAN (E) STANDARD

In response to the industrial demands of the wartime defence industry and the rapid growth of aircraft construction the Standards Association of Australia issued a number of Emergency Standards within the existing ‘D’ specifications for the Automotive Industry. These specifications were prefaced by (E)D. They were further grouped with a number identifying common materials :

(E)D5xx – Steels

(E)D6xx – Light Alloys

(E)D7xx – Copper and Copper Base Alloys

(E)D8xx – Aircraft Timber and Plywood

(E)D15xx - Electrical

(E)D21xx - Oils

(E)D25xx – Parts

Many of the (E) Standards were verbatim adoptions of the British Standards of the time. In this case they form a valuable cross reference to wartime British Standards that may be missing from the record today. The index of (E) Standards indicates which Standards were copied from the equivalent British Standard.

Australian_Standards_Index_1948.pdf

After 1940 the British Air Ministry informed the Australian government that no more supplies of aircraft or aircraft materials would be forthcoming from the UK. This stimulated a massive effort to independently develop domestic materials and build aircraft and engines of US design. Accordingly the (E) Standards are a unique record of these efforts, reflected in the adoption of US steel alloys such as SAE4130, US aluminium alloys such as 2014 and 2024 and Australian timbers such as Hoop Pine and Coachwood for aircraft plywood. The requirement to supply materials for the manufacture and repair of both British and US designs elevated the subject of material substitution to the forefront of Australian wartime research and development.

Where you have copies of any old aircraft Standards please use the Contact button to arrange scanning and sharing.