JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Artisans at Fleet Readiness Center Southeast (FRCSE) completed the installation of the first new set of wings on a P-3C Orion aircraft at the facility in November to replace a structurally fatigued pair with nearly 30 years of service to the Fleet.

The wings, manufactured by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company in Marietta, Ga., will extend the service life of the aircraft according to Aerospace Engineer John Herzberg assigned to Fleet Support Team Structures Engineering.

“Wings are a big driver for fatigue life,” said Herzberg. “The aircraft are used for a variety of missions, and due to the ‘Red-stripe’ causing a shortage, the ones that are in service are being used more extensively. The new wings will add 7500 flight hours before a structural inspection is required.”

The term “Red-stripe” comes from the diagonal red stripe on the Airworthiness Bulletin that grounded 39 P-3C Orion aircraft in December 2007 for structural fatigue concerns on a portion of the lower outer wing called Zone 5.

The 39 aircraft comprised about one quarter of the P-3C fleet, many of which had been flying for more than 25 years. The groundings were not the result of an aircraft incident but rather the result of ongoing analysis obtained through the P-3C Fatigue Life Management Program.

Nearly 300 FRCSE artisans, engineers, logisticians, planners and estimators, production controllers and a host of other support personnel developed an extensive depot-level Zone 5 repair to quickly return the critical assets to combat commanders.

In addition, Program Manager Air (PMA) 290 with oversight for the Maritime Surveillance Program worked closely with FRCSE to pilot a donor “wing-off” program. PMA-290 funded a sling specially designed to flip and move aircraft wings between fixtures. Rather than performing labor-intensive overhead “wing on” repairs, artisans could perform “wing off” repairs safely and with greater ease using ergonomic work stands.

Wings removed from P-3 Orion aircraft stored at the Arizona “boneyard” were trucked to Jacksonville in 2008. Donor wings underwent special structural inspection, Planned Maintenance Intervals I and II, and Zone 5 repairs before installation on P-3 aircraft.

P-3 Orion Program Manager Clinton Batten said the artisans were still conducting Zone 5 repairs to the lower outer wing planks and the lower aft wing spar, but they were running into repair issues on the upper planks of the donor wings.

“It’s still old tired metal,” said Batten. “The Fleet is not getting as good a product.”

Artisans continue to complete work on “donor” wings as colleagues in adjoining production cells work on the installation of newly manufactured wings.

It is proving more cost effective to install new wings because of the many unknowns associated with refurbishing the old ones according to Cmdr. Stephen Tedford, PMA-290 P-3 Sustainment Integrated Product Team Lead.

An upper wing surface analysis performed in September 2009 determined that corrosion on the upper surface and not fatigue was the primary concern for the P-3 fleet.

“The procuring of new Outer Wing Assemblies (OWAs) focuses on installing new wings on those P-3 airframes scheduled to remain in service the longest,” he said. “The new OWAs will provide sufficient service life for the P-3 aircraft to reach the fleet's transition goals to its replacement aircraft, the P-8A (Poseidon)."

Lockheed Martin is building the 46-foot wings from blueprints using original tooling designed three decades ago. The challenge is to find new methods to assemble the wings since the older artisans have long retired. FRCSE artisans who are currently performing the work are providing valuable feedback to the manufacturer.

Logistics Management Specialist Steve Roberts said the oversized loads require special handling before, during and after arrival at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla.

“Each set weighs 25,000 pounds,” he said. “Each wing is 16 feet wide and 46 feet long. Larry Peterson, an industrial engineer, designed a special tow bar and castors to move the crates. The whole evolution involved a lot of activities on base and a lot of people.”

Artisans inducted the first P-3 slated for rewing in January 2011. In the production hangar, special mate/demate fixtures built at the facility were used to properly align the wing with the fuselage. Industrial engineers prepared lift plans for two cranes to assist riggers with attaching the slings to move the wings.

Cell 3 Production Line Supervisor Joey Hetu said there was a learning curve to overcome when attaching the new wings, but “it wasn’t that difficult.” He said the Zone 5 repairs proved more tedious.

The biggest obstacle to overcome was properly aligning the new wings’ nacelles to hard points on the propellers. If not done properly, the wings could require extensive and expensive rework.

“The nacelles were tricky thorns in our side,” he said, “matching the old to the new. It takes 400 calendar days from induction to Ready For Issue (RFI) to complete an aircraft. This includes not only the wing installation but also avionics modifications, the lower center wing replacement, wet checks, ground turns and paint.”

Hetu said he is proud of his fellow artisans who he predicts will deliver the first aircraft ahead of schedule in early 2012.

The P-3 Orion continues to prove its value to the Fleet. The four-engine turboprop aircraft was designed as a land-based, long-range, anti-submarine warfare patrol aircraft. Its mission has evolved to include surveillance of the battlespace, either at seas or over land.