UNAVIA was founded in 1946 by the Ministry of Defence-Aeronautics and AIA (Aeronautical Industries Association).
Then, over time, the Ministry of Defence (General Directorate for the Manufacture of Arms and Armaments for Aeronautics and Space), RAI (Italian Aeronautical Register), and AIA (Aerospace Industries Association), today AIAD (Italian Industries Federation for Aerospace, Defence and Security), became Promoters Members.
- In the acronym that the founders chose were the two elements characterizing its mission:
take care of standardization in the well-defined aeronautical sector (UN … AVIA … zione), - be related to national standardization as a Federated Body to UNI (UN … AVIA),
mission also underlined by the presence of an airscrew in the logo.
Even the first name chosen (“Technical Commission of Unification in Aeronautics”) expressed this mission.
UNAVIA was also recognized as a Federated Body to UNI for the Aerospace Sector.
Among the many activities of the initial period, it is interesting to note the compilation of an “Aeronautical Technical Dictionary” UNAVIA (divided into 15 Sections) in five languages (Italian, English, French, German, Spanish), derived from the “Glossary of Aeronautical Terms” BS 185 (dated 1940, revised in 1963) of the BSI (“British Standards Institution”).
The UNAVIA Standardization activity was subsequently extended also to the space sector, and the name changed to “Technical Commission of Unification in Aerospace“.
In 1991, the Certification activity (of the Quality Systems of aerospace organizations, in accordance with the applicable national and international regulations) was added to the Standardization activity, and UNAVIA then assumed the Company name of “Association for Standardization and Certification in the Aerospace Sector “.
Subsequently, in 2003, it was decided to separate the certification activity from UNAVIA, with the creation of the company “UNAVIAcert”, dedicated to this activity, which was then definitively sold in 2013 to the Dutch group KIWA CERT; in the meantime, a Training activity was also developed, closely related to the Standardization activity, and therefore the Company name was changed to “Association for Standardization and Training in the Aerospace Sector“.
Finally, in 2004, to the activities of Standardization and Training, was added also the Qualification activity (of the personnel in charge of “Non-Destructive Testing“), and furthermore the field of activity of UNAVIA was extended, from the Aerospace sector only, to the entire sector of the Defence, and therefore the Company name became “Association for Standardization, Training and Qualification in the Aerospace and Defence Sector“.
For established practice they have always been elected, as President, the Directors of the Companies associated to AIAD (FIAT Aviation, Aeritalia, AleniaAeronautica, Leonardo) and, as Vice President, the Directors of the – General Directorate of the Ministry of Defence for the Manufacture of Arms and Armaments for Aeronautics and Space (COSTARMAEREO, ARMAEREO).