By Jim Jenkins
Aging Aircraft Public Affairs

Blitzkrieg or shock and awe?

It doesn’t matter how you label it, but while it may not have been actual troops storming a palace or laying down a barrage of ordnance, the speed with which the Aging Aircraft Integrated Product Team responded to fleet needs were and continue to be unprecedented.

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

There is a surface mount on the fuselage of the aircraft with a bracket in it 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.

Using its Fast Track 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 lots of hours and with paper drawings it would have been a cumbersome process,” said Bob Ernst, AAIPT head. “So they came to us, we moved the money, we got it under contract right away and we got 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 product was created, the Navy would have to 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 run by the AAIPT located at the Global TransPark in Kinston, N.C.

“It isn't just 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 and allows us to quickly reach into its product lines and 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. But, since WorkHorse, is within an hour’s driving of Cherry Point, N.C. the lead structural engineer for the V-22 at the depot was able to be on site to work with the small business and quickly correct the problem.

“The drawing came from Bell, went through the Navy and then we got it,” said Ed Hoffmann, Vice President of Marketing for WorkHorse. “Nobody knew that the part image was reversed. It wasn’t until the engineer who could get in his car, drive up to WorkHorse, sit down, get the part, get the bracket and say, ‘It doesn’t fit,’ that anybody knew there was a problem.”

Being able to integrate the vendor and the in-service engineer at the location proved invaluable especially after finding out there was a problem. And because the Global TransPark has companies doing engineering and production, the V-22 engineer had another, correctly made, first article part in his hands within 10 minutes of discovering the problem.

In addition to having WorkHorse machine the bracket doubler, they also needed to create a tool that would allow maintainers to attach it. The machined doubler does not come with the three mounting holes required to attach it to the bracket. So WorkHorse machined 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. So you have a Six Sigma statistical process control, and you’ve got the flexible manufacturing reengineering efforts that are done, and for aging aircraft it’s not as much about the statistical process control, that’s important, but it’s more about having a flexible, agile set of tooling that can respond to things.”

That’s what Fast Track is all about. We need to replicate this type of turn around on a more global process, Ernst said. The anticipated Fast Track contract will allow programs to get this type of response on literally hundreds of parts.