Quick Fix for Aircraft Wiring
Just-in-time Wiring Information System Patent Awarded

December 22, 2009: LAKEHURST, NJ – Do you know how hard it is to wire together all the electronic components for your stereo system, television and computer? Just think how much tougher it would be to do the electrical wiring for your house. Suppose a wire goes bad, how do you locate it and what do you do to identify and fix it?

Now think about the complex wiring system on a modern day Navy aircraft. One can only imagine the countless man hours required to locate, identify and fix a wiring problem discovered during a routine maintenance check on an aircraft deployed on a carrier at sea.

With a hand held wire tester, the sailor performing maintenance duties can readily identify if a wire is bad, but how does he identify the proper part and tool necessary to fix the problem in a timely manner?

The Just-in-time Wiring Information System (JITWIS) is the answer. Gail Edwards and Thomas Kowalski, Avionics Support Equipment engineers for Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JB MDL) in Lakehurst, NJ were recently awarded a patent for a system they designed to aid Fleet maintenance specialists in an effort to reduce the man hours required to repair aircraft wiring systems.

When confronted with this challenging task, Edwards and Kowalski were given 150 days and a budget of $500,000 to design and develop a program to overcome this time consuming dilemma. JITWIS allows the maintainer to enter the characteristics of a part in order to find the correct part number. A series of questions prompts the maintainer, such as what shape is the connector, how many pins are there, what color is it. Once the questions are answered, JITWIS provides a part number and identifies the appropriate tool necessary to make the repair. A lot of time is saved and the proper fix is made.

The program is currently available to maintainers via a website and a CD. It is expected that this application will save the Navy an excess of $3 million per year in cost avoidance, and reduce maintenance man hours by 10% fleet wide.