Group Captain de la Plain has said that certain defects are reported formally to MoA as the Supply Department. This paper outlines briefly some of the procedures involved in dealing with these reports, particularly those aimed at improving Reliability and mentions some forthcoming changes which have the same aim in view.

In the course of each year some 25 000 of these reports are handled by RDA (Defects) and in spite of “weapon concept” philosophies, some 200 different investigating authorities are involved. Since the capacity for investigation and re-design is limited, and because the traditional system for reporting does not discriminate sufficiently between important and less important defects, this mass of reports may prevent some defects from receiving the urgent attention they deserve. The Services have agreed therefore, to be more selective in their reporting since it is not possible to remedy every defect in existing aircraft and available effort must be directed into areas where the maximum improvement in aircraft safety, availability and reliability will result.