Several Airmen joined
the 22nd Maintenance Squadron's equipment excellence section in a
Refurb Rollout ceremony Nov. 21, which celebrated the end of
McConnell AFB’s first complete KC-135 Stratotanker
refurbishment.
“The result was a 40-year-old aircraft that looked brand
new in approximately 30 days,” said 1st Lt. Kai Thompson of
the 22nd MXS. This is the first aircraft completely refurbished
here in more than four years.
“After Sept. 11, 2001, Air Mobility Command stopped aircraft
refurbishments to ensure our nation had enough tankers to support
the (war on terrorism),” Lieutenant Thompson said. “As
a result of many trips to the desert and various other places
around the world, the aircraft began to suffer from wear and tear
and harsh climates.”
Col. Cathy Clothier, 22nd Air Refueling Wing commander, brought
the refurbishing program back to McConnell. The purpose of
refurbishing an aircraft is to keep the aircraft in a generally
good condition by repainting it and replacing old parts with new
ones.
“We plan to keep these aircraft for at least another 20
years, so we want to keep them looking and functioning well for
that entire time,” said Tech. Sgt. Shane Fairfield of the
22nd MXS.
“That’s why we do refurbishment.”
A team of more than 10 Airmen from various maintenance
specialties here began preparing for this project in May by
visiting Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., to follow a McConnell
aircraft through Fairchild’s refurbishment facility.
“The team took copious notes and observed several
benchmark ideas to set up a refurbishment program at
McConnell,” Lieutenant Thompson said. The team returned here
and began work on the first overhaul project Oct. 17.
“The 22nd ARW funded more than $250,000 in new equipment
to develop the program into an efficient process and used existing
manpower within their maintenance organizations,” Lieutenant
Thompson said. The entire aircraft interior was redone from the
back of the boom pod to the front of the cockpit. Old parts were
torn out, new parts were installed, the aircraft was sanded down,
and everything was repainted. When refurbishing an aircraft,
control panels, switch panels, gauge panels, lights, fans, seat
cushions, troop seats, crew bunks, insulation pads, oxygen bottles,
carpeting and floor boards are some of the items replaced.
“We replace close
to 300 aircraft parts off of every jet,” Sergeant Fairfield
said. “All are repainted, or we get new ones. It is currently
a 30-day process; however, we plan to cut it down to 18-days
beginning in March.” New processes will shorten project
times, including a new paint booth.
“We’ll be able to take all of our aircraft parts,
and instead of routing them to the corrosion shop for paint, we can
pull them out and paint them ourselves, which saves a lot of
time,” Sergeant Fairfield said. “We will also have our
own media blasters and sand blasters to prep all the parts.
“Our ultimate goal is to have a complete set of aircraft
parts already pre-done -- prepped and painted -- so as soon as the
jet comes, we’ll take the old ones off and put new ones on,
which is expected to save us weeks,” he said. Also, the team
plans on having all of its storage cabinets on a new mezzanine,
which is described as a big stand that will be permanently bolted
to the floor.
“We’ve figured out that the mezzanine will probably
save a million trips a year from going up and down the stairs
...that’s a lot of potential accidents,” Sergeant
Fairfield said.
Once all of these plans are implemented and the flow time
shrinks to 18 days, this will make “more aircraft available
for use around the world,” Lieutenant Thompson said.
“The refurbishment program instills pride in ownership
with the aircraft’s dedicated crew chiefs and the pilots who
fly them, and represents the outstanding efforts of McConnell Air
Force base when the aircrafts perform missions away from home
station,” Lieutenant Thompson said. [ANN Salutes Senior
Airman Angelique Smythe, 22nd Air Refueling Wing Public
Affairs]