Page 1 - Luke AFB Thunderbolt, May 4 2018
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We build the future of airpower May 2018
Vol. 18, No. 5
INSIDE Egress Airmen reduce F-35 canopy
component replacement time
StorIES
ï® LRS wins award, 3 Story and photo by
ï® ALS grads, 4 Senior Airman
ï® TITAN program, 5 RIDGE SHAN
ï® F-35 tours world, 6
ï® Load crew comp, 11 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ï® CONS exercises, 18
Over the past two months, Airmen from
FEAtUrE the 56th Component Maintenance Squad-
ron Egress Systems Flight developed a
Senior Airman Ridge Sean new process for the replacement of flexible Brig. Gen. Brook Leonard, 56th Fighter Wing commander, learns about an innova-
linear shaped charges on F-35 Lightning tive process for F-35 Lightning II canopy component replacement April 13 from Staff
U.S. AIR FORCE HONOR GUARD II canopies. Sgt. Tyler Volk, 56th Component Maintenance Squadron egress technician at Luke
Air Force Base. The 56th CMS spent two months refining the process to replace the
See Page 12 In an emergency situation when an F-35 charges that separate the canopy from the jet during ejection, condensing it from 10
pilot is required to eject, the FLSC is the days to three.
component responsible for destroying and
Continue to get Luke’s latest separating the canopy from the rest of the Before any changes were made, CMS said. “When we tried a replacement without
news and information from jet, giving the pilot’s seat a clear path to knew the best place to determine if there it, everything went well, and we cut out 24
these sources: http://www. depart the aircraft. were more efficient ways to perform the pro- hours from the process with the removal of
aerotechnews.com/lukeafb/ cess was from the source of the canopies and a single step.â€
To ensure the charges function correctly producer of the F-35 -- Lockheed Martin.
http://www.luke.af.mil and safely, they are regularly replaced. The egress section also discovered there
and social media Before February, the process to replace the “We use a template to perform the mea- were steps along the process that could
charges took several teams of maintainers surements necessary to conduct an FLSC be completed concurrently, instead of in
Luke56thFW @LukeAFB more than a week. replacement,†Volk said. “We were previ- sequence, without interfering with one
ously relying on Lockheed to supply that another.
Date of publication “The explosives we maintain have expira- template.â€
tion dates and life limits, may receive dam- “With the preshape out, we could now lay
First Friday age over time, and may face other issues,†According to Volk, with the help of some and adhere the flexible charge at the same
said Staff Sgt. Ryan Bessery, 56th CMS Lockheed specifications and on-base manu- time,†Bessery said. “We could do the fillet
of the month egress technician. “When we first started facturing resources, the 56th CMS was able seal immediately, and on the same day do
replacing them, it was a very long process. to produce their own multi-piece template retainers, manifolds, and windows.â€
Submission deadline Our first one took ten days. We knew we which was both cheaper and easier to use.
needed to speed it up.†Finally the egress section improved
15th day of the month “We spoke to a Lockheed expert who was training processes to maximize the number
CMS members began their effort to re- able to procure drawings for us,†Bessery of Airmen who could complete the replace-
prior to date of publication duce the FLSC replacement time by assess- said. “We made our own template to speci- ment.
ing shortcomings and identifying possible fications, and were able to divide it into
Veterans improvements. smaller pieces, which saved us time.†“We suddenly started getting a lot of
them [replacements] in, and we didn’t
Tell us Your Story The initial replacement process con- The egress section further identified that have enough people,†Bessery said. “Now
Active-duty, Reserve, Retirees tained numerous steps which had to be the time spent preshaping charges could we have enough people to do three shifts
All military branches are included completed sequentially. Several steps be dramatically reduced and eventually through three days and have everything
contained wait times lasting between 24 eliminated entirely. installed back on the aircraft by the end of
Email name, phone number and a and 36 hours. the third day.â€
brief description of your service to “A preshape involves laying the flexible
“There was a lot we had to do, and with charge out in the canopy, letting it sit for a See cAnoPy, Page 8
56fwpathunderbolt@us.af.mil the amount of time each task took, we had day to mold and then adhering it,†Bessery
different sections waiting for us to hand it
off so that they could do their part of the
process,†Bessery said. “We knew there were
a lot of things we could consolidate.â€
In total, the entire FLSC replacement
process took approximately 178 hours. Since
February, the 56th CMS egress technicians
reduced that time to 58 hours, and will
reduce it even further in the coming weeks.
“Our goal is a 24-hour turnaround,†said
Staff Sgt. Tyler Volk, 56th CMS egress tech-
nician. “One shift removes the canopy and
strips it, one shift lays the charge, and one
shift rebuilds the canopy and puts it back on
the jet. This should allow us to have the air-
craft down for one day, instead of one week.â€
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