The Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex sustainment mission is complex, but one flight keeps aircraft fuel bladders sealed and ready for the mission.
The 574th Commodities Maintenance Squadron Structural Repair Flight ensures C-130 and F-15 aircraft fuel bladders are always available and ready to be put back into the hands of the warfighter.
Kurt Starling, 574th CMXS Structural Repair Flight work leader, said the fuel bladders are flexible bags contoured to the shape of a particular aircraft structural cavity, that add around 1600 gallons of additional fuel which increases the distance an aircraft can travel.
“There's a nylon barrier on the inside that prevents diffusion through the cell wall,” he said. “It takes a lot for them to degrade. Because they're not just rubber bladders, they have a long service life.”
John Hair, 574th CMXS Structural Repair Flight production supervisor, said these fuel bladders come to us in a condition known as F condition, or what most would call “Unserviceable” condition.
“Basically, we turn unserviceable assets into serviceable, or A condition,” he said. “We have to keep these fuel bladders readily available for our customers.”
Starling said the fuel bladder manufacturers have not been able to produce enough new bladders to keep pace with supply and demand for the aircraft industry.
“We had to step up and increase our production on trying to get unserviceable fuel bladders into serviceable condition,” he said. “So, we went out to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, also known as the boneyard, and the Air Force pulled all the old fuel bladders out of retired C-130 and F-15 aircraft and sent them to us to inspect and repair.”
Starling said his team looks over each fuel bladder that comes into the shop.
“The first thing we do is put it on our table and string it up to expose the whole outer area of the fuel bladder,” he said. “We look over all the metal fittings to see if there are any obvious defects then we clean it, pressure test it, and if it leaks, mark the area that needs to be repaired and repair them per our technical data.”
Hair said there is significant savings to having the fuel bladders repaired.
“We normally sell around 350 serviceable C-130 aircraft fuel bladders a year,” he said. “New fuel bladders cost around $23,000 each so, it saves the Air Force money to repair these bladders.”
Starling said the F-15 aircraft fuel bladders are not part of the normal workload.
“The F-15 fuel bladders are not a routine workload, and we work maybe 10 a year; if we're lucky,” he said. “F-15 technical data states that when a jet comes in for Planned/Scheduled Depot Level Maintenance, the fuel bladder is pulled out and thrown away and a brand new one is put in the aircraft.
"They never reinstall a used fuel bladder, but they're having manufacturing issues just like we were a couple of years ago. So, the engineer authority put in engineering disposition documents to allow us to inspect and repair the bladders if needed, that way they can install the used F-15 aircraft fuel bladders back in the plane.”
Hair said the 10-person fuel bladder team is always ready for the fight.
“My team is always ready to support the mission, and they go above and beyond to ensure we’re supporting the warfighter,” he said. “They have a mission-first mentality that shows in exceeding targets and exceeding customer demand.”
Starling agreed.
“They get an unserviceable asset in, work it from start to finish and return it to an A condition asset knowing that this bladder is going in a plane that will be used to protect this country.”