U.S. Air Force Crafts 3D Printed Parts For B-52s, E-3s, And E-8s

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A pair of gaskets on display might not be a big deal when it comes to the manufacturing of military airplane parts. Visually, they simply look like two metal rings. But it’s how the gaskets were made that’s the story here, in that these items were the first metal parts ever created on a 3-D printer at an Air Force Base in Oklahoma earlier in August. Here are the details on why this process is so revolutionary.

Flight Global

Maintenance workers at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, have already tested and created anti-ice gaskets for the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bomber, the Boeing E-3 Sentry early warning aircraft, the Northrop Grumman E-8 reconnaissance plane and Pratt & Whitney TF33-P103 turbofan equipped aircraft.

RELATED: Four Companies Qualify To Bid For U.S. Air Force Skyborg Program

A great deal of painstaking reverse engineering went into the process for the metal parts, but at a time when replacement pieces for ageing aircraft are getting scarce, the 3-D process is a time and money-saver. The new process might even extend the life of the behemoth workhorse B-52 well past the century mark.

Military.com

There’s no telling whether a 3-D printer capable of producing items in metal can create larger parts like wings and rudders, but for now, the process is a life-saver for maintenance crews who previous had to search long and hard for replacement items. Companies who created those parts may have since gone out of business, while others realizing the scarcity of those items tend to charge exorbitant prices.

Using such a state-of-the art printer eliminates precious time searching for those parts and makes it easier on the budget if maintenance personnel have to pay for what’s available. The result is a greater likelihood that these older planes will be still in service while the Air Force waits for replacement aircraft like the Boeing F-15EX fighter plane to join its fleet.

Defense Blog

That’s when the Pentagon stepped in and encouraged the Air Force to consider a 3-D printer was an alternative. And while the production of the gaskets was a moment that was worth celebrating, it certainly wasn’t the first part ever produced by the printer at the Oklahoma base.

For that momentous occasion, we’d have to rewind back to August 2019 when personnel printed a vital part for a Lockheed C-5M Super Galaxy transporter. That would have been a

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By: Gene Kosowan
Title: U.S. Air Force Crafts 3D Printed Parts For B-52s, E-3s, And E-8s
Sourced From: www.hotcars.com/u-s-air-force-crafts-3d-printed-parts-b-52s-e-3s-e-8s/
Published Date: Sun, 09 Aug 2020 16:00:42 GMT

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