First Article Inspection Report Template (AS9102 Forms 1–3, Explained)
A first article inspection report (FAIR) proves your process produces conforming parts — and in aerospace it means AS9102's three forms: Form 1 (part accountability), Form 2 (materials, processes, and specs), Form 3 (characteristic-by-characteristic results against a ballooned drawing).
Assembled by hand, a FAIR is hours of transcription per part — and rejections usually come from bookkeeping (missing characteristics, cert references that don't match, un-ballooned notes), not from bad parts.
What each form needs
Form 1 identifies the part: numbers, revision, serial/lot, and whether the FAI is full or partial (partial FAIs cover what changed — a re-run after a process move doesn't need the whole drawing re-proven). Form 2 lists materials and special processes with their spec numbers and the certs behind them — this is where heat lots and outside-process certs must reconcile. Form 3 is the grind: every ballooned characteristic, its requirement, the measured result, and the instrument used (which must trace to a calibrated gage).
The balloon numbers on the drawing are the index for Form 3 — do them first, keep them stable across revisions where possible, and never hand-renumber mid-FAIR.
Stop transcribing
Everything on those forms already exists in a decent shop system: part and rev, routing with special processes, material lots and certs, inspection results tied to calibrated gages. Traveler generates Forms 1–3 from that data and imports ballooned characteristic lists from dedicated ballooning tools rather than making you re-key them — included in the flat price, because FAI paperwork shouldn't cost $10K/year in QMS software.
Want it handled?
Traveler Cloud does this for $109/month — or follow the steps above yourself, free.
See pricingStraight answers
▸When is a new FAI required?
First production run, and again after changes that affect form/fit/function: design revision, process or location change, tooling replacement affecting characteristics, or a lapse in production commonly triggered at 2 years.
▸Do I need special software for AS9102?
No — the forms are published and Excel versions circulate freely. The question is whether you can afford the transcription hours and rejection loops; generation from live job data removes both.