For quality engineers and managers in aerospace manufacturing who know AS9102 cold, and would rather be on the floor than babysitting spreadsheets.
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A couple years ago, I watched a senior quality engineer run a first article on a new flight-critical machined housing. He didn’t “do paperwork.” He engineered a proof. The drawing was dense, the GD&T was spicy, and the customer wanted an AS9102 yesterday.
That’s the opportunity in modern FAI software: not replacing good quality practice, but making it easier to do excellent quality at pace. AS9102 Rev C pushed more emphasis on digital product definition and traceability, so tools that can interpret drawings, balloon intelligently, and keep evidence tied to each characteristic are suddenly a real competitive advantage, not a nice-to-have.
ITAR adds another layer. Your process and your system controls determine whether handling technical data stays compliant. Good FAI tools help by offering U.S. data residency options, restricted-access hosting, clear audit logs, and admin controls so you can enforce who sees what.
ITAR-compliant FAI software is a system that helps you create AS9102 first article inspection reports while ensuring ITAR-controlled technical data is stored, accessed, and shared only in ways allowed by ITAR. It does that through secure hosting, U.S. data residency, and access controls.
Feature vs category:
Some tools treat ITAR as a deployment toggle (e.g., “we can host in a U.S. government cloud”). ITAR compliance means controlling access by nationality, subcontractor sharing, support personnel, and data export paths. In other words, the software helps, but the system you run is what’s compliant.
If you’re supplying primes or tier-1s, you’re already living in AS9102. Your “readiness” signal is program criticality and inspection volume. Once you have recurring FAIRs every week, you benefit immediately from software that standardizes how characteristics are captured and retains objective evidence.
This is where ITAR pressure usually spikes. You’re adding programs, suppliers, maybe a second facility, and suddenly drawings are bouncing around email chains. The FAI tool you choose becomes a control point:
Here, the big unlock is standardization across sites and suppliers. If Site A balloons one way and Site B another, your FAIRs become inconsistent and reviewers lose trust.
Signs you’re ready for the category:
Opportunities it creates:
Tradeoffs to expect:
GroundControl is a cloud FAI platform built specifically for aerospace suppliers who want to generate error-free AS9102 packages fast, without turning quality engineers into document clerks. It combines drawing ballooning, high-accuracy characteristic extraction, centralized results capture, and one-click AS9102 exports in a single workflow.
Where it really stands out is how it uses extraction + validation to reduce rework. Instead of giving you a blank Form 3 and a “good luck,” it tries to do the tedious parts automatically, then helps you verify what matters.
Aerospace & defense manufacturers doing AS9102 FAIRs on ITAR/CUI programs who want a compliant cloud workspace with minimal setup and a short learning curve.
Contact sales. (GroundControl typically sells per-organization, not per-seat, and provides unlimited support; confirm current pricing via demo.)
HighQA is a broad manufacturing quality suite. Its FAI capability sits inside Inspection Manager / 360 CORE, combining automated 2D/3D ballooning, GD&T extraction, and AS9102 report generation with workflow features like approvals and traceability.
Teams that want FAI as part of a larger digitized quality system (planning, SPC, NCR, supplier collaboration) and have the bandwidth to adopt a suite.
Contact sales. HighQA sells modular suite pricing.
InspectionXpert is one of the most common desktop-first ballooning + inspection reporting tools in aerospace. It auto-balloons PDFs/CAD, extracts characteristics, and exports AS9102 forms or Excel inspection sheets quickly.
Quality teams who want fast, low-friction drawing ballooning and AS9102/Excel exports, especially in desktop-controlled ITAR environments.
InspectionXpert lists pricing tiers and a free 14-day trial; exact seat pricing is typically quote-based.
DISCUS is a long-standing FAI suite used heavily in aerospace. The IDA module reads drawings and extracts characteristics; Planner builds inspection plans; Results and CMM modules map measurements back to balloons; then you export AS9102 forms.
Aerospace suppliers who want a robust, modular desktop suite for extracting characteristics, planning inspection, and mapping CMM results — especially in ITAR-sensitive desktop environments.
One-time fee + maintenance; contact sales.
GroundControl wins this category for a specific reason: it’s not just ballooning software and it’s not a generic quality suite. It’s an AS9102-native platform built for aerospace suppliers who want faster FAIRs with fewer escapes.
The differentiator is the workflow: GroundControl uses high-accuracy drawing/notes extraction, centralized result capture, and automated AS9102 form generation so the FAIR emerges naturally from inspection instead of being a second job afterward. Customers publicly describe meaningful gains in speed and data accuracy, and the product is positioned for CUI/ITAR-aligned U.S. cloud deployments.
If your goal is to make AS9102 Rev C compliance repeatable, teachable, and auditable across engineers and suppliers, GroundControl is the clearest leader in 2025.
A First Article Inspection (FAI) is a documented, characteristic-by-character verification that your first production run meets all drawing and specification requirements. In aerospace, AS9102 defines how you plan, execute, and record that verification using Forms 1–3, plus linked objective evidence. The goal isn’t paperwork — it’s demonstrating production readiness with full traceability.
They’re aimed at different use cases. HighQA is great if you want a broad quality suite (planning, SPC, NCR, supplier management) with FAI as one module. GroundControl is better if your priority is a fast, AS9102-native FAIR workflow with minimal overhead and strong cloud ITAR/CUI alignment. If you don’t need a full suite, GroundControl usually delivers value faster.
Think of FAI software as how you create and validate the FAIR internally. Supplier/prime portals like Net-Inspect are how you submit and collaborate externally. Some tools integrate directly; others export AS9102 packages that you upload. If portal submission is a big part of your flow, confirm export formats and any APIs you need.
Yes — not because manual work is “broken,” but because software amplifies your expertise. You still decide what’s critical, what needs re-measurement, and how to interpret intent. The tool just removes transcription and formatting friction, makes traceability cleaner, and helps newer engineers perform at your level sooner. Early adoption gives you better throughput and more consistent customer reviews.
For point tools, you’ll usually feel speed gains in the first week — the moment you stop re-typing characteristics. For platforms, most teams see meaningful reduction in FAIR prep time within the first 1–3 FAIR cycles as templates, extraction rules, and CMM mappings settle in. InspectionXpert and GroundControl both cite time dropping from tens of minutes/hours to minutes once teams are fluent.
Desktop tools keep data and workflows local. That can be simpler for some ITAR programs, but collaboration is file-based and audit visibility is lower. Cloud tools centralize drawings, results, and evidence so FAIRs are repeatable and reviewable — but you must ensure U.S. residency, access controls for U.S. persons, and ITAR-appropriate support boundaries. The best choice depends on your compliance posture and collaboration needs.
If you like their drawing automation but want a more complete FAIR system with controlled collaboration and Rev-C-native workflow, GroundControl is the best alternative. If you want a suite that includes FAI among many quality functions, HighQA is the other direction to explore.
"Just want to thank you for your dedicated service to always answering questions and making the software as user friendly as it can get. We are definitely seeing time savings in regards to creating FAIR’s and the accuracy of number and letter recognition is great."
