DEFENSE - Abdonline

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K E E P I N G T H E RQ-4 IN THE AIR CHALLENGES FACED BY MAINTAINERS OF THE RQ-4 UAV Airman 1st Class Maximus Todd, 9th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron Crew Chief, observes as an RQ-4 Global Hawk's wheel rolls onto a scale. The Global Hawk is weighed after each refueling as part of routine maintenance procedures. BY DONNA J. KELLY Northrop Grumman's sophisticated RQ-4 - known to the U.S. Air Force as the Global Hawk and to the U.S. Navy as the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System, or BAMS UAS - is a unique flying platform with equally unique maintenance requirements. This high-altitude, longendurance, unmanned aircraft has proven its usefulness in a variety of applications. In the context of these missions, the crews maintaining the RQ-4 A, B, and N models are constantly learning about what it takes to keep this valuable asset in peak operational condition. A continuing work in progress, the RQ- 4 has gone through some interesting stages of development. Larry Martinsen, an Air Force Integrated Logistics Support Manager, assigned to the Global Hawk 34 AVIATION AFTERMARKET <strong>DEFENSE</strong> | SPRING 2010 WWW.ABDONLINE.COM Photo by Airman 1st Class Krista Rose
program at Beale Air Force Base in California, explains that the aircraft is largely automated and occasionally does the unexpected. When that happens, Northrop Grumman technicians have been able to go back and determine why the aircraft did what it did from reviewing the data logs. For example, early on in the program, it was discovered that taxiing a Global Hawk presented problems. The RQ-4 is designed to turn short of its programmed waypoints to provide a smooth taxi line. Taxiing around a curved taxiway is achieved by plotting a series of points on the intended track. The first time that technicians attempted to taxi an RQ-4 around a curve, they found that the result of the turn-short feature was that the radius on the curve the aircraft actually followed was substantially less than the radius on the mission plan. The solution to this problem was to plot additional points and use a wider radius circle than the intended taxi path. That way, when the aircraft turned short, it was where it was supposed to be. Long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) design puts a premium on light weight. RQ-4 aircraft use integrated fuel tanks, as opposed to fuel bladders, to cut down on weight and increase fuel capacity. To further minimize weight, the fuel system on the first RQ-4s, the Block 10s, is very rudimentary. These aircraft are refueled using the over-the-wing method (to refuel, the maintainer must hold a fuel hose nozzle in an opening on the wing), as opposed to having a single-point receptacle. This technique results in uncertainty about the quantity of fuel loaded, so the aircraft must be weighed after each refueling to determine if it has received the full amount of fuel needed for its mission. In the beginning, maintenance crews used the same type of scales utilized to weigh cargo pallets for this task. This approach was problematic, however, because maintainers had to find and attach ramps to the scales, and then tow the aircraft up these ramps to get them onto the scales. Since then, a variety of lower profile scales have been used that have smaller ramps built into them, thus making the process much easier. The scales currently in use at Beale Air Force Base are made by the Intercomp Company, of Medina, Minnesota. In Block 10 aircraft, fuel inevitably flows to the lower wing during the refueling process, resulting in the need to elevate this heavier wing section with a jack to ensure that fuel gets out to the farthest fuel tanks in both wings. Newer Block 20 RQ-4s have been equipped with single-point refueling capabilities, a feature that was strongly advocated for by maintenance personnel, mainly for ease of refueling and de-fueling. In addition to the single-point capability, Northrop Grumman added capacitance probes to replace the float switches used in the earlier Block 10s. Unfortunately, it was discovered during testing that not enough probes were added to give KEEPING THE RQ-4 IN THE AIR Airman Todd, refuels the Global Hawk on the flightline at Beale Air Force Base in California. WWW.ABDONLINE.COM AVIATION AFTERMARKET <strong>DEFENSE</strong> | SPRING 2010 35 Photo by Airman 1st Class Krista Rose
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