[note: pics and hyperlinks at the website story]

Air Force Engineers Repair a Battle-Damaged A-10 From Their Bedrooms

BY KYLE MIZOKAMI MAY 7, 2020

A battle-damaged A-10 Warthog was successfully repaired by an engineering team that came up with a repair solution without ever seeing the plane, let alone meeting together in person. The engineers, from the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Hill Air Force Base, were tasked to fix a bullet hole in the plane’s underbelly. The hole was apparently the result of enemy action over the course of a recent mission.

One problem: the engineers were all working from home and couldn’t assemble to physically inspect the plane. The aircraft is described as being at a “deployed location,” likely meaning Afghanistan. Not only was the plane thousands of miles away, the engineering team was all under shelter-in-place orders that had them working from home.

Rather than put the repair off until the pandemic was over, the team worked remotely from “bedrooms, basements, and home offices,” the Air Force explains. The team used VPNs, emails, and phone calls to study the damage and communicate with the forward-deployed aircraft maintainers.

The team decided it needed more detail about the damage and directed maintainers on how to proceed. “After cutting a 3-inch hole in the underbelly, a crack in the structure with three (3) sheared fasteners was found, along with the bullet lodged in the fuel cell cavity floor crack.”

The engineering team sent the maintainers their repair recommendations. After the plane was fixed it was studied and declared airworthy. The plane will be permanently repaired when it returns to its home base in the U.S.

The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the U.S. military in a variety of ways, including sickening troops and forcing the cancellation of training and exercises. Adversity forces innovation, and remote collaboration like this could become a model for the future even long after the pandemic is over. Experts can lend their expertise halfway across the world without leaving their bedrooms, fixing expensive equipment without the cost and trouble of sending them overseas.

Glad they decided to keep this aircraft in service rather than mothball them.Im lucky that I get to see A-10 from both Ft Wayne and Battle Creek.

They make it sound like this airplane was repaired by people who couldn't see or touch it, which isn't the case.

It's routine for engineers to approve a repair without seeing the aircraft; they'll see drawings and photographs, however, and there are absolutely people touching it who are inspecting it and doing the repairs.

The story makes it sound like it's something that it is not.

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy:
They make it sound like this airplane was repaired by people who couldn't see or touch it, which isn't the case.

It's routine for engineers to approve a repair without seeing the aircraft; they'll see drawings and photographs, however, and there are absolutely people touching it who are inspecting it and doing the repairs.

The story makes it sound like it's something that it is not.

I can't speak to just how common it is in military aviation repair, but the use of an aeronautical engineer for repair in the GA shop I was in was uncommon, but it did happen with some of the structural repairs we were involved in.

The article title is a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm going to disagree with your assertion that the article made it "sound like this airplane was repaired by people who couldn't see or touch it", as it specifically mentions the forward deployed maintainers.

quote:

The team used VPNs, emails, and phone calls to study the damage and communicate with the forward-deployed aircraft maintainers.

quote:

The team decided it needed more detail about the damage and directed maintainers on how to proceed.

quote:

The engineering team sent the maintainers their repair recommendations.

Ha, I was just thinking that wouldn’t this sort of thing be pretty common with today’s technology?

A bunch of engineers looking at photos/data/etc...a problem, figuring out how to remedy the problem, tell people how to fix it.

I’ll bet Sig Monkey coulda fixed it with one banana tied behind his back.
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Snugglepuppy is correct.

I have been involved in several repairs of aircraft (F-4E and F-15C, and F-15E, where we contacted McAir for information to facilitate local repair on the station. (Eglin and Bitburg)

We contacted either through local McAir reps (Eglin) and from Bitburg, via other channels, and provided necessary information of the damage, and they responded with appropriate drawings, methods, and procedures to effect repairs.

In most cases, we were able to return aircraft to fully mission capable status, and in some cases, facilitated repair and make aircraft operational for either limited mission and in a few cases, "one time flight" to get aircraft to a depot facility.

In the latter cases, there were restrictions placed on the flight parameters and annotated in the forms, aircrew briefed, and "one-time flight" accomplished.

These were situations that occurred due to (on the case) in-flight fire that damaged and F-15C keel and former, which allowed parts to be cast, machined, "fit" and appropriate NDI/other verification of serviceability.

The people that maintain aircraft in the military are quite capable of doing what needs to be done in the field, and working with the folks that design/build the airframes has always been a part of that effort.

And in all of it, the airworthiness is the primary concern. It is not as big a deal as some would make it.

But, it does require a certain ability in the people involved to make it work.

Me and my bananas have a few "BTDT" t-shirts in the closet.