Acknowledgments: The author thanks William
Baumann, director of the 567th AMXS, deputy
director Rodney Sheppard and Jerry Bryza, chief
of media relations at 72nd Air Base Wing public
affairs.Deputy director Rodney Sheppard
adds, ‘We are also looking at new ways
to supply parts and keep our mechanic
productive. This will save time and
money.’ This includes working on 3D
manufacturing techniques for items that
will be needed in the future.
‘The depot here at Tinker and its sister
complexes have a synergy that is used
to maintain these old aircraft’, continues
Baumann. ‘Commercial airplanes are built
in huge numbers and supportable for a
long period of time. Any combat aircraft
is built in relatively small numbers that
must be supported for many years.’
Under a Department of Defense (DoD)
contract with Boeing, fatigue tests are
under way to evaluate the Lancer’s ability
to operate until at least 2040. This process
is centered on B-1B 85-0082, previously
stored at AMARG. The fuselage was
removed from the ‘boneyard’ in July 2014and trucked to Boeing’s test facility in
Tukwila, Washington State.
‘Full-scale fatigue testing is being
carried out by Boeing,’ explains Baumann.
‘They have a B-1 and are exing the
aircraft to simulate many years of ight
stress. This e ort helps to determine
what things might be vulnerable or
should show up after years of increased
ight hours.
‘The airframe itself is approaching its
original design life in hours, so to achieve
that 2040 plan we have to know what
things we might need to look at for repair
or improvement in the future to get it to
y that long. There are ve acquisition
and sustainment modi cation programs
to increase the life of the aircraft and
upgrade capabilities as needed planned
to start in Fiscal Year 2018.’ Fatigue testing
to date has shown that there shouldn’t be
any major structural issues by 2040.In 2017 the Robert T. Mason Depot
Maintenance Award — the most
prestigious award for industry and the
DoD — was given to the 567th Aircraft
Maintenance Squadron. The honor
was bestowed for its achievements
in continuous process improvement,
increasing throughput, eliminating
queues and processing so many aircraft
in the previous year. This re ects
improvements to turn-around times
and the quality of the aircraft turn-out.
As Baumann concludes, ‘We have great
people doing great things on the oor.
Without them we couldn’t do what
we do’.Below: A new
arrival — B-1B
85-0079 from
the 34th Bomb
Squadron at
Ellsworth AFB
arrives for PDM.
Bottom left to
right: Working on
a stripped-down
engine nacelle.
A refurbished
nose
undercarriage
assembly is
reinstalled.http://www.combataircraft.net // May 2018 39
36-39 B1 Depot maintenance C.indd 39 20/03/2018 10:54