News

F-15 rewire flight to save money, manhours

  • Published
  • By Wayne Crenshaw
  • 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
A new flight at Robins is playing a key role in keeping the aging F-15 Eagle flying for many years to come. The flight will perform a complete rewire on 122 F-15s over the next five years. Those are all C and D models, and when that is done, they will spend at least another five years rewiring E models.

Keith Gilstrap, the flight chief, said work on the first plane began Nov. 13, and when fully ramped up they will be working on seven planes at a time. They currently have four planes in the hangar.

All of the planes are coming here for programmed depot maintenance with the rewire being done in conjunction with that. Robins did an F-15 rewire in the early 1990s, but at that time it was done in the same hangar as the PDM.

The difference this time is a "cellular concept," in which the rewire will be done in a separate building with electricians and mechanics focused solely on that task. Gilstrap said that approach will lead to a more efficient workflow. The rewire is expected to take 72-77 days per plane.
Gilstrap explained that in normal PDM, electricians would inspect the wiring but replace it only as needed. In the rewire program all but a few already-updated wires will be removed and replaced.

It's a challenging project because it's something that all but a couple of the current F-15 crews haven't done before. A total of 120 people will be working in the flight when it reaches full capacity, including 47 newly hired electricians. The rest of the crew is being shifted from PDM work.

"This is an all volunteer force," Gilstrap said. "We did not have to tell one person to come here. They wanted to do something new and different and they wanted to be on the ground floor of a new facility and a new workload."

He said the reason for the rewire is that the insulation on the existing wire is getting brittle and causing shorts. Although it has not caused any crashes, it has led to a significant amount of field repair time and often false troubleshooting as technicians try to figure out why aircraft systems fail intermittently, Gilstrap said.

"It is really going to save millions of dollars," he said. "It's going to save an untold amount of manhours out in the field, in troubleshooting and repair."

Although the first production plane arrived in November, they had already tested the process on three planes in a validation and verification process.

They rely on wiring diagrams to figure out the arrangement of the massive amount of wires and connectors on the plane. Those working on the project said they enjoy the challenge.

"You get to learn a lot about the aircraft," said Eric Bickett, an aircraft mechanic.

Crew members have made important overall contributions to the effort, including figuring out how to make the space in the building work.

The building is new and was originally constructed for another purpose before being designated for the F-15 rewire project. To keep the project on schedule, they needed to be able to fit five planes on one side the hanger, but in measuring they came up 12 feet short.

That was going to be a major problem, but aircraft sheet metal mechanic Greg Mucher thought of a way to join the tail platforms - which workers stand on - and that created the needed space.

Mucher, who has been at Robins for nine years, said he has enjoyed working on the new project. "It's a good group of people that works together well," he said.

The planes come to the hangar basically stripped down to the fuselage, with the wings, engines and avionics removed. After the rewire is completed, the wires are all connected to a large, custom built machine called a wire integrity tester. It has a wire that attaches to each connection on the plane and it virtually assures that the job has been done correctly before the plane is reassembled.

Gilstrap said the first plane is scheduled to go on the tester Jan. 21.