USAF Mechanics Take On Aircraft Born Five Decades Before They Were

BARKSDALE AFB, La.–Every 450 flight hours, or two years, an early 1960s U.S. Air Force B-52H bomber by Boeing [BA] will come here for 23 days of phased, “bumper to bumper” inspection and maintenance with the 580 personnel of the 2nd Maintenance Squadron–the “Cajun Knuckle Busters.”

Of the service’s three bombers, the oldest is close to being the most mission ready. Last year, the B-52H had a mission capable (MC) rate of about 54 percent, slightly lower than the

Northrop Grumman [NOC] B-2A Spirit stealth bomber, while the Boeing B-1B had a 43 percent MC rate.

It is a tribute to the skill, perseverance, ingenuity, and hands-on detail orientation of 18 to 24-year-old Air Force mechanics that the B-52–affectionately known as the BUFF–is still performing long-range strike missions. The young, internet savvy B-52H personnel are keeping an aircraft that relies on steam gauges, hydraulic pumps, and mechanical cables flying.

The B-52H has one million rivets so mechanics during the phase knock on the plane’s aluminum skin to detect any that are loose.

In a box on the tail are two large “jack screws” that control the plane’s flight- vital horizontal and vertical stabilizers, and mechanics have to check to ensure there are no cracks.

In the wheel wells are numerous flight control cables that connect with the plane’s throttles, actuators, and pedals that allow the turning of the rudders.

“All of this is cable,” said Senior Airman Stephen Chilcutt, the B-52 phase crew chief with the 2nd Maintenance Squadron, while pointing above to the cables in a wheel well. “It’s mechanical. We don’t have fly-by-wire. It’s not an electrical cable that runs back to an actuator. It is a physical, mechanical cable for all of the flight controls in this jet. Every single one of these [cables] gets a wipe down and inspected for any fraying.”

“Working on an aircraft of this age, most parts are not made for these [B-52Hs] anymore,” he said. “What we have to do is a lot of ingenuity, a lot of help from our back shop, like sheet metals technicians, our shop NDI [Non-Destructive Inspection]. What they’re doing is essentially taking X-rays of critical part areas. Something like an area completely covered in rivets, they’ll X-ray it and be able to see what we would call the ribs that hold it together to see if there are any cracks. They’ll do this on the entirety of the jet.”

“Most of our parts come from the B-52 boneyard [at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz.],” Chilcutt said.

In addition, under the Air Force Repair Enhancement Program (AFREP), electricians and other technicians at Barksdale, get to take on the challenge of repairing parts they choose that a supplier is unable to fix or those whose builders are no longer in business.

“For smaller parts, we have started doing 3-D printing,” Chilcutt said. “At our training place for maintenance, we’ve been implementing 3-D printing and virtual reality for training. We have systems up right now, you put on that headset, and you could be in this hangar and have a virtual jet in this hangar with you, and then you can take off the skin, highlight all the electrical wires, all of the ‘hydro’ [hydraulic fluid], all of the fuel. We’re definitely implementing some stuff like that on the training side. For smaller parts, we’re absolutely starting to get into 3-D printing for parts that may not be as available or as critical. We couldn’t 3-D print metal and stuff like that, but maybe little plastic parts and covers and stuff, absolutely.”

More than five years ago, Senior Airman Daniel Kyser, a fabrication flight metals technology apprentice, won an award at Barksdale’s Spark Tank competition for his presentation on the maintenance benefits of a 3-D printer.

For several years, maintainers here have had a 3-D printer, but the latter has yet to make parts on the B-52H.

“We do have a 3-D printer, but we are not able to put those parts on the aircraft yet because, to have the 3-D printed part, you have to go through to make sure it’s flight worthy so right now, the B-52 does not have anything that’s 3-D printed on the aircraft,” said Air Force Capt. Amanda Cyphers, a maintenance officer with the 2nd Maintenance Squadron. “The 3-D printer that we have is related to what you would normally see–hardened plastic for your support brackets, things that don’t have to be air worthy.”

Despite the challenges of B-52H sustainment, the aircraft may stick around until 2050–near its centennial.

“Most our [B-52H] jets have 23,000 to 24,000 flight hours,” said Col. Michael Maginness, a veteran B-52H pilot and the commander of the 2nd Bomb Wing. “I guarantee you that the [average] 737 [commercial airliner] has more than that. The latest [B-52H] structural assessment I saw is they are only 55 to 60 percent through the structural life of the aircraft so it’s in good shape.”