Aeronautics - Magazooms

HITTING THE
Submitted by the Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft Program Office
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN
ALMOST 50 YEARS, A P-3
ORION AIRCRAFT TRAVELED
NEARLY 2,000 MILES
WITHOUT EVER LEAVING
THE GROUND.
TThe first of 12 P-3C Orion
aircraft purchased by Taiwan
successfully completed
its overland transport last
October from Davis-Monthan
Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz.,
to Lockheed Martin’s facility in
Greenville, S.C., where it will
receive standard depot level
maintenance, structural service
life extension and avionics
upgrades in preparation for
delivery to Taiwan.
All 12 aircraft were
determined to be nonflyable
due to structural fatigue. The
U.S. Navy Maritime Patrol and
Reconnaissance Aircraft Program
Office Integrated Product Team
(IPT) led by Bill Tirrell, Taiwan
Logistics manager, and Sam
Cowell, IPT lead for Structures
and Authorized Government
technical representative,
were tasked with finding a
way to disassemble and safely
transport the aircraft from
Tucson to Greenville.
T“The fuselage was the challenge,” said
Tirrell. “We looked into transport by
rail; however, the fuselage requires
special handling. Transport by rail would
require the fuselage to be transferred on
and off truck beds four times.”
To reduce the risk of damage
during loading, the team opted for
transportation across country by
flatbed truck — a process which
would only require moving the fuselage
twice. A suitable truck was located,
and a transport cradle was designed
specifically for holding the fuselage.
According to Tirrell, the design of
the cradle was crucial in preventing
structural damage while ensuring the
aircraft could sustain the 2,000-mile
overland trip and remain operationally
capable for Taiwan after reassembly.
The team determined that a
refurbished version of the BL-65 tool
was the best option for securing the
fuselage to the transport cradle. The
BL-65 tool was used in the original P-3
"Transport by rail would
require the fuselage to
be transferred on
and off truck beds
four times.”
- BIll Tirrell
production line more than 50 years ago
as a substitute landing gear to move
the aircraft around the production
facility safely.
“We pulled out the old blueprints
and made a few modifications to
withstand the heavy lifting that would
be necessary to move the aircraft,”
Cowell said.
The redesigned BL-65 tool bolted to
the aircraft at the wing joints and gave
the team a sturdy framework that could
be securely fastened to the transport
cradle. Finally the entire assembly —
fuselage, BL-65 tool apparatus and
transport cradle — was chained to
the flatbed truck.
Once the team designed and built all
the specialized components, the aircraft
Official U.S. Navy Photo
The first of 12 P-3C Orion aircraft purchased by Taiwan is secured on an oversize flatbed
tractor trailer in preparation for delivery from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson,
Ariz., to the Lockheed Martin facility in Greenville, S.C., where it will undergo repairs and
upgrades before final delivery to Taiwan.
was disassembled and loaded onto nine
trucks. Four oversize flatbed trucks
carried the fuselage, wings, empennage
and horizontal tail section. The
remaining five tractor trailers housed a
large number of crated components. The
engines, propellers and landing gear will
be shipped separately to various depots
for repair and overhaul prior to final
delivery to Greenville.
The careful disassembly and
preparation of the aircraft for
transport was completed by Aerospace
Maintenance and Regeneration Group
(AMARG) at Davis-Monthan AFB
under budget and in less than the
anticipated six months.
“When the aircraft arrived at
Greenville, we performed extensive
symmetry and alignment tests on
the fuselage and found that all of the
transport components performed as
expected,” Cowell said. “The aircraft
experienced no bending and no twisting
during transport. It stayed true to shape.”
The second aircraft is already
undergoing disassembly by AMARG,
and the remaining aircraft will be
transported over the next three years.
The final aircraft is scheduled to leave
Davis-Monthan AFB in June 2013.
“We consider the first complete
nondestructive disassembly and
overland transport highly successful,”
Tirrell said. “All of the special support
equipment performed as designed,
and our procedures for loading and
transporting the P-3C fuselage have
proven successful.”
The successful transport of the first
P-3C aircraft has caught the interest of
other government organizations. The
method has been requested by the U.S.
Forest Service and Homeland Security,
as well as other Foreign Military Sales
P-3 operators. ★
“. . . we performed
extensive symmetry
and alignment tests on
the fuselage and found
that all of the transport
components performed
as expected.”
- Sam Cowell
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