A need was felt to have a National Conference exclusively in the area of Quality Engineering in Aerospace Technologies. This conference (Quality Engineering in Aerospace Technologies (QUEST)) was first conceived, proposed by Dr. J S Soni, scientist ‘E’, Reliability and quality Assurance, DRDL, Hyderabad. The same was readily agreed and supported by the then Director, DRDL, Lt. gen (DR.) VJ Sundaram (Rtd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM and approved by the then SA to RM Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. The first conference (QUEST’95) was organized by DRDL, Hyderabad, the second (QUEST’99) and third (QUEST’2001) were organized by CEMILAC, Bangalore and VSSC, Thiruvananthapuram respectively. The unanimous recommendation of the three QUEST conferences was to form a society exclusively for the Quality and Reliability in aerospace field. The objective of the conference was to bring together on a common platform eminent Scientist, Engineers, Designers, Technologists and Entrepreneurs involved in design, development and quality assurance in the field of aerospace for an interactive discussion and exchange of ideas to enrich the knowledge and face challenges in aerospace activities in the country.
The National Seminars on Reliability Analysis and Engineering (NSRAE) was organized with the objectives of providing a forum for exchange of ideas and sharing of experience and interactions among practicing engineers and academia in the design, development, integration and operation of complex systems in the strategic sectors of aerospace defense and atomic energy. The two national seminars NSRAE-98 at CASSA, Bangalore and NSRAE-99 at VSSC, Trivandrum generated tremendous interest among the Reliability engineers in the country and subsequently the National Committee on Reliability Analysis and Engineering (NCRAE) was constituted in March 2001, with Dr. NK Srinivasan as Chairman and Sri KC Bhattacharya as member secretary. The enthusiasm was carried forward in NSRAE-2001 held at IAT, Pune.
Based on above, Society for Aerospace Quality and Reliability (SAQR) was registered with Government of Andra pradesh in year 2002. SAQR could organize many conferences / seminars in later years.