Fabrication flight: a broken jet’s last hope

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Kenna Jackson
  • 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan --  There are many Airmen from various shops trained in maintaining Misawa's aircraft. However, when a jet needs more help than they are capable of offering, a crew chief and his jet turns to the 35th Maintenance Squadron fabrication flight as their last hope.

"If we can't fix it, no one can," said Airman 1st Class Benjamin Ernst, 35 MXS fabrication flight aircraft metals technician.

The fabrication flight is made up of three shops in order to evenly distribute the daily work load. They include the non-destructive inspection shop (NDI), aircraft structural maintenance shop, also called sheet metal shop, and the metals technology shop, which is called the machine shop.

At NDI, Airmen inspect and check for various degrees of cracks or damage to aircraft. They also perform x-rays and magnetic particle, radiographic, optical and ultrasonic tests to assess any damage or missing parts inside the aircraft.

"Mainly its preventive maintenance that we deal with," said Senior Airman Timothy Schwenning, 35 MXS fabrication flight NDI inspector. "We check for internal cracks, missing components and inspect oil samples for metals that may cause complications while a jet's in-flight."

As for the sheet metal shop, these Airmen are more concerned about the outer layer, or the "skin" structure of a jet.

"If it's something to do with the structural design of the jet, then we can repair, modify or fabricate whatever is needed to get the aircraft back up in the air," said Staff Sgt. Montez Lee, 35 MXS fabrication flight aircraft structural maintainer.

The shop also takes care of the repainting and protection against corrosion, the gradual degradation of metals by chemical reaction, of the parts they receive, he added.

At the machine shop, Airmen specialize in welding and fabricating parts with machine precision tools.

"Most of the stuff we get just needs a good patch job," said Ernst. "Sometimes though, we'll get those parts that can't be easily fixed or acquired, so we create an exact copy of it."

According to Ernst, replicating parts is a complicated task. It requires precision and intense attention to detail. If a part is even one hundredth of an inch off the mark, then it's useless.

"If it's not perfect, it could cause catastrophic consequences, like the plane malfunctioning," added Ernst. "So, it can't be too big or too small, otherwise it's no good."

With no room for error, the flight is constantly reviewing their training. Proficiency is very important in this job, said Lee.

Members of the fabrication flight repair or manufacture parts for just about anything the 35th Fighter Wing needs on a daily basis, which saves the base both time and money, said Ernst.

According to Ernst, the flight is vital to aircraft maintenance and keeping jets operational because of its capability of producing parts out of composites, fiberglass and sheet metal. Also, should they not be able to repair it, the Airmen in this flight can manufacture an exact replica.

"We are able to keep the base from relying on having to look outside the base for parts," said Ernst.

Using the supply system can cause a jet to sit on the ground for approximately two weeks, while waiting for a provider to ship the part and get it cleared through customs.

"That's two weeks of flying time lost, two weeks of a jet not completing the mission," said Ernst. "Why wait all that time, when we can easily do the job."

Overall, the existence of the fabrication flight not only saves a ton of man-hours, but approximately $1.5 to 2 million annually as well, said Lee.

"Every job is important when it comes to aircraft maintenance," added Lee. "However, what we do keeps jets in the air instead of grounded for weeks."