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Team Tinker cuts B-1’s maintenance time

  • Published
  • By Brandice J. O'Brien
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Tinker knows how to put the "team" in teamwork.

Recently, it was time for a B-1 Lancer at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to return to Tinker for scheduled maintenance. The aircraft is currently one of three in the fleet used for developmental testing - and the only jet used for specific software tests - and couldn't be absent for the five months that is typically allotted for programmed depot maintenance. Officials at Edwards AFB, the test site; Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, the main operating base; and Tinker, the planning and maintenance worksite; talked strategy. They tailored a specific maintenance package and scheduled two months for repair. Tinker finished the task two weeks early! The aircraft was returned to Edwards AFB Aug. 31.

"This effort was an incredible accomplishment for the entire B-1 enterprise! The exemplary teamwork demonstrated by our B-1 SPO engineers and planners, the flight test community at Edwards, our 76th Maintenance Wing group and our local 10th Flight Test Squadron, was top-notch," said Col. Charles Sherwin, Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center Aerospace Sustainment Directorate B-1 Sustainment Division chief. "We established a new benchmark in supporting the B-1 and getting critical new capabilities out to the warfighters. This is the new model for our B-1 enterprise to operate."

Michael Hostetter, 565th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron director, agreed.

"B-1s continue to reap benefits from continuous process improvements. The aircraft received egress component time required changes, home station checks, multiple inspections and four time compliance technical orders inspections during its time at Tinker," Mr. Hostetter said. "Returning the test aircraft ahead of schedule provided a much needed resource to Air Force Materiel Command's test program at Edwards."

Steve Adams, test manager for the B-1 System Program Office, said the aircraft had a small window of downtime in between two imperative tests - an upgrade to the navigational radar capability and software sustainment - and keeping the aircraft any longer than was absolutely necessary could crush the test program.

"It's bigger than just Tinker because if we delay tests, we delay getting capabilities out to the field," Mr. Adams said. "That affects deployments and has a much bigger impact to the war, in general."

The new modification allows the navigational system of the aircraft to be more accurate for navigation as well as weapon delivery, said Maj. Matthew "Hackey" Grimes, 10th FLTS B-1B Weapons System officer and navigator.

"It also cuts down on preflight timelines by over a half an hour, allowing the B-1 to be airborne and headed towards the fight that much sooner," the major said.

Maintenance personnel worked two shifts and faced several challenges. Among them were the time crunch, obtaining necessary parts, finding defects and the uncertainty of getting them solved in time, the personnel working on the aircraft in 100-plus degree temperatures and balancing the B-1 work with other aircraft.

Jason Sexton, Egress Section chief in the 565th AMXS, said the majority of the work performed on the aircraft was upgrading the ejection components and it was a huge project.

Another challenge was much of the test equipment from Edwards AFB, was still on the aircraft that maintenance personnel had to work around. This was a good thing as it was part of the enterprise approach of this effects based high-velocity maintenance, officials said.

But, Tinker personnel persevered.

"Everyone was involved in one capacity or another," Mr. Sexton said. "Either working an assigned area or covering the other weapon systems - B-52 Stratofortress, E-3 Sentry or KC-135 Stratotanker - so work could continue on the B-1 with as little interruption as possible."

Bucky Miller, B-1 Industrial Engineering technician assigned to the 565th AMXS, agreed.
"It was important that this aircraft be completed as quickly as possible so not to delay flight testing, which has a direct impact to the future modifications of the B-1," he said.