When we thought we would have to stop work because the wing was on the deck, they immediately began to explore possible solutions,” said McLean.
OSPREY HALF WING FAN FULL
“This team is full of out–of-the-box thinkers who will attack any challenge. With this MV-22’s wing removed, McLean says, artisans had to either wait until the wing was back on the aircraft or explore the possibility of tackling the K-fittings off the aircraft. As with the stow ring, FRCE’s V-22 team had done work on K-fittings before, but this had always been performed on the aircraft. The removal of the wings also impacted the work to be done on the aircraft’s K-fittings. We had data to go by, but it was coming mainly from stricken and salvaged aircraft rather than airplanes that were going to go back into a flight status.”
“Removing the wing is not a process that has been commonly executed. “After working extensively with engineering, we made a decision to remove the wing we felt like this was something we're going to be doing in the future, so we might as well tackle it now,” he said. According to Sinsel, the stow ring had to be replaced and this would require removing the wing. Corrosion is a problem common to military aircraft like the MV-22, which are flown in some of the most demanding operating environments on the planet.
The V-22 team discovered the corrosion on the aircraft’s stow ring when the MV-22 was inducted for planned maintenance. Take the stow ring off the wing and the fuselage will not stay together.” “It also holds the airplane and the wing together. The stow ring is what allows the plane to stow the wing 180 degrees,” said McLean. It can also be stowed on full-size CV/CVN carriers.Īccording to Don McLean, V-22 overhaul and repair supervisor at FRCE, the stow ring is a key element of the wing/rotor fold system. This folded configuration considerably reduces the footprint of the MV-22, allowing it to operate off all Navy L-class amphibious ships, including LHA/LHD amphibious assault ships. One unique feature of the MV-22 is the wing/rotor fold system that allows the rotor blades to fold inward, the nacelles to be rotated down, and the entire wing to turn ninety degrees clockwise, stacking it above the body of the aircraft. We were not the first people to take a wing off an MV-22 by any means, but FRCE was the first depot to do it.” “We found ourselves performing work on this airplane that was not part of our normal routine. “There were a number of firsts associated with this aircraft,” said Matt Sinsel, FRCE’s V-22 branch head. In another inaugural depot-level repair, FRCE artisans tackled corrosion on the aircraft’s K-fittings with the wing off, rather than the standard wing-on method this required a novel approach to the process.
US Navy, JMARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, NC by Joseph Andes - Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) is gearing up to return an MV-22 Osprey to the fleet after conducting a wing-off stow ring replacement on the aircraft, the first completion of this procedure by a naval aviation depot.
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