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Show HMtop " September 17.1 998 Landing Gear workers increase production hours by Lisa Ryan IFF The Commodities Directorate's Land- Hilltop Times staff ing Gear facility works on gears from many different Air Force aircraft Here's how the numbers for fiscal year 1998 break down: The Commodities Directorate's Landing Gear facility has seen an 18 percent growth in production over the last fiscal year, bringing the number of man-hour- s s annually. Doug Hamel, chief of Li's industrial operations, said he attributes the increase to work load increase. "Plus, in the second half of fiscal year 1998, we've brought in enough people that have allowed us to increase our production," Hamel said. The Landing Gear facility was built to handle 1 million hours annually, and currently they're operating at 40 percent. The facility is a maintenance and overhaul function for the Air Force. Gears are brought in on a periodic depot maintenance cycle or when they have failed and have been removed for a specific cause. "We essentially zero-ou- t the wear and tear on the gear and it is brought back to original specifications," Hamel said, "so every part goes through the process." For these reasons, Hamel said. Hill's Landing Gear facility is the best value for the Air Force. "We're the quickest source to generate landing gear," Hamel said. "It costs us about 30 percent of what new replacement parts would cost to do the overhaul. And it's because of high cost of investment items like there are forgings on an that are $40,000 - $50,000 a piece. reman-ufacturin- g F-1-6 91 unite (complete landing gears) 27 units 1205 units 473 units 24 nose gears and 38 main A-- 10 to between 390,000 - 400,000 T-3-8 : F-1- 6 F-1- 5 B-- l gears C-5 C-1B-5- . 2 KC-13- 5 22 nose and 88 main : 61 main 44 main forward gears and 4? main aft (back) 144 nose gears 29 nose and i Ll : air vent main gear outer cylinder. John Douglas cleans the C-- Currently, the facility handles 80 per- cent of landing gear overhaul for the entire Air Force. More workload is potentially on its way. It has been decided that starting in fiscal 2000, periodic depot maintenance will begin on the Eagle. A future potential, Hamel said, may be PDM for the as well. The growth, Hamel said, will also r have a significant impact on the rates as better capacity F-1-5 F-1- 6 per-hou- reuti-lizatio- n is in place. 5 doubled their output in 5-- 6 screens on the cadmium years, putting them up over 600,000 hours annually, Hamel said. Boeing is also proposing to go into an "intelligent partnership" with the Landing Gear facility to overhaul landing gear on the beginning in 2003. Hamel said this workload will bring J Photo by SSgt Timothy Trager strip tank before dunking a is a challenge for the facility, Hamel said because every gear that comes in cannot be overhauled. Replacement parts must be procured. "With older planes we're becoming more creative in the engineering world," Hamel said. 'To get a replacement part, a contractor has to be found and there's an additional 50,000 annual only a few sources in the world that "The arrangement with Boeing will make those parts. There is no warebe some sort of subcontractor rela- house anywhere that stocks parts tionship where we overhaul the land- for gears and components. "To get a raw forging to make new Hamel said. ing gear on the "We're responding to the proposal to parts takes 18 months itself," Hamel negotiate how we'll do it and what the continued. "And then it goes to a mancosts will be." ufacturer who will machine it down to "Boeing is pushing us to be ready to final specifications." do work in the next 18 months, Hamel said the service life of the which will be a big effort with all of Warthog has been extended to 2020 the other workload coming in," Hamel and they will probably go through a said. "We have to do a lot of tooling PDM cycle as well. "We're taking these and fixturing first." gears much further into a life cycle Working with an aging aircraft fleet than we've ever taken them." C-1- 7 man-hour- s. ," "Currently, the is repaired if something fails or breaks down," Hamel said. Those planes are almost 20 years 6 old." "The more capacity utilization we have, the more our fixed costs rates per hour come down," Hamel said. "And that's good for competition." Taking into account all the potential workload for the facility, they will have 7 A-1- 0 mi fi : nTt (uu f(1 0Tsi ff any purchase, ' U VTUII 93098 4$h otter expires i, mm...mm,.mm...mm,.mm. mm mm. mm. mm mmm :.' i V III . . mm mm trpp i Iff M mm mm mm mm mm Withtmoo ! Purchase 0 i 1 Limi, one per coupon offer expires mmm m 9308 mm 00?? Base Restaurants NVl'V1 Ext. m Menu Line, Ext. 7-- 1 Officers Club fsl uT IrTi i fi I IwTTTTl i tw mnTTi iTa f (yWP CAlL SECURITY FORCES AT EXT. Menu Line, Ext. 7-3Q- 5Q QR 7-3QS-71 192 |