By Jim Jenkins
Aging Aircraft Public Affairs

Special Ops or Shock and Awe?

It does not matter how you label it. It may not have been an actual SEAL team storming a fortress or laying down a barrage of ordnance, but the speed with which the Aging Aircraft Integrated Product Team (AAIPT) responded to fleet needs were and continues to be unprecedented.

In less than 30 days -- from initial tasking to actually fielding a product -- the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) AAIPT helped produce a modified custom antenna doubler-plate for the V-22’s Electronic Surveillance Measure (ESM) antenna.

There is a surface mount on the fuselage of the aircraft with a bracket that the ESM antenna mounts to. The original bracket position disrupted the propagation pattern of the antenna. The doubler was needed to move the bracket just enough to create a better antenna pattern.

Since this requirement was considered an urgent matter, Naval Aviation Depot Cherry Point V-22 Fleet Support Team representatives contacted V-22 Osprey Program Office (PMA-275) engineers and suggested that they contact William Riseling, NAVAIR Aging Aircraft FastTrack team lead, for assistance. NAVAIR team members met and reviewed available engineering documentation, and it was decided that the AAIPT FastTrack team could meet PMA-275’s urgent request for 30 shims (doubler-plates) and an installation tool by June 30. Available engineering documentation called for the manufacture of a two piece aluminum shim. Dr. Robert Polanowski, lead reverse engineer of the FastTrack team suggested a one piece shim design and quickly provided a Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided Manufacturing drawing that was approved by the Bell-Boeing and V-22 engineering staff.

Using its FastTrack team, Omnibus contract and a well placed source of labor, the Aging Aircraft IPT orchestrated a quick turnaround of the much needed part for the Osprey program.

“The V-22 had a problem. They wanted to do some offsets for these doublers to get better antennae patterns. The depot was already working excessive hours and with paper drawings it would have been a cumbersome process,” said Bob Ernst, AAIPT head. “They came to us, we moved the money, and we got it under contract right away by contracting WorkHorse Aviation to do it.”

In the past, machinists at a Naval Aviation Depot would mill the part out through a prolonged trial and error process, Ernst said. Then after a suitable production representative was created, the Navy would go through a formal request for proposal bidding process to get a contractor to build a few of the parts.

WorkHorse manufactures structural components for aircraft and is the lead company in a government-industry pilot program mentored by the AAIPT located at the Global TransPark in Kinston, N.C.

“It is not about using small businesses as a quick way to get a contract, Ernst said. “It’s a way to use a commodity that is more nimble. It allows us to quickly reach into [small business’] product lines as well as research and development potential for quicker solutions to the problems of aging aircraft.”

There was one slight problem. The technical drawing that WorkHorse received was incorrect. However, WorkHorse is within an hour driving time of Cherry Point, N.C. The lead structural engineer for the V-22 at the NADEP was able to be on site to work with the small business and quickly correct the problem.

Being able to integrate the vendor and the in-service engineer at the location proved invaluable. Since the Global TransPark has companies providing engineering and fabrication, the V-22 engineer had a First Article Part in his hands within 10 minutes of discovering the problem.

In addition to having WorkHorse fabricate the bracket doubler, they also needed to create a tool that would allow maintainers to attach it. The machined doubler must be line-drilled at assembly in order to attach it to the bracket. WorkHorse designed and fabricated a tool that allows maintainers to drill the holes at the aircraft after the bracket has been bonded to the antenna mount to ensure proper alignment.

“With aging systems, you need to have a fast and flexible manufacturing process,” Ernst said. “It goes back under AirSpeed. You have the Lean manufacturing process and you have the reengineering type of efforts. You also have a Six Sigma statistical process control, and you have the flexible manufacturing reengineering efforts that are done. For Aging Aircraft it is not only the statistical process control that is important. It is also about a flexible, agile set of tooling that can respond to urgent fleet needs.”

That is what FastTrack is all about.