Aerospace Manufacturing and Design welcomes all aircraft enthusiasts to join the fun and NAME THAT PLANE! Each issue, a new aircraft will be featured. Given a photo and a clue box, readers are encouraged to guess what plane is being described and submit their answers to www.AerospaceManufacturingAndDesign.com/Form/NameThatPlane.
Michael J. Witt, Systems Development, Verification & Test Discipline Lead – SSC Engineering, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Stennis Space Center, Mississippi
How long have you been in the aerospace business? 41 years
How did you become interested in aircraft? I’ve always had an interest in flight and space. As a young child, I was always watching the sky for aircraft and always watching the space missions when they launched.
What is your favorite aircraft and why? The Lockheed Constellation. I have always admired its lines and the readily identifiable three vertical stabilizers.
Runners-up:
Steve BissellQuality Control Manager Alloy Specialties Inc. Manchester, Connecticut
Paul Polinske Maintenance Planner Sr. ATI Forged Products Cudahy, Wisconsin
When machining difficult products, do we really use all the tools we have available? Obviously, part geometry dictates what we must do to produce parts needed, however, it does not dictate how we can create the shapes.
One area of concern for many shops and programmers is tool life when machining forgings or materials with a tough outer layer. While working with customers who deal with this problem, we observe how they process these parts. We should look at trying to process these parts in three distinctive phases.
Phase one: How do we remove the tough outer scale areas? In many cases we see processes that simulate what I would classify as finish machining passes. In other words, using tooling that simulates the final geometry of the part and exposes the nose radius of the tool. This is the weakest area of the tool and using it this way generates heat, harming tool life.
Lead-angle tooling allows you to use the strongest edge or radius of the tool and reduce the heat being put back into the part. Many times, machinists dismiss lead-angle tools or even round tools because they do not match the finished part geometries. One common argument says lead-angle and round tools add time to the machining process. However, downtime due to poor tool life and broken tools often adds more process time than slowing down the machine to protect the tool.
Phase two: Prepare the part of the finish pass. In this phase you may need to add a pass or a tool to generate corner radii or other geometries that will allow you to finish the part with the finish pass. For instance, if a milled surface calls for a square shoulder, you may have to add a tool that allows you to remove material left by the roughing tool that has a 45° lead angle. Phase three: Finish the part with the final geometry. This will require tooling that matches the finished part geometry and allows us to have a quality finished part for minimal cost.
In many instances, we review what the cycle time is to evaluate the total cost. However, total cost also includes the downtime to change tools, costs of broken tools, and the frustration that the operator endures to run the machine to produce these parts.
When we have difficult parts to produce due to hard material, we can use geometry to solve our manufacturing problems. Ask your tooling provider to help you select the proper geometry to produce your parts at the lowest possible cost.
CMR Consulting
Mike Ramsey, president of CMR Consulting, retired from Kennametal Inc. as vice president, global machine tool industry sales, after 39 years of service in sales and marketing. He can be reached at miker2468@aol.com.
Bell APT carries 110 lb payload
Departments - Up and Soaring
SkyVision team wins AUVSI award; AeroVironment teams with Robotic Skies for UAS MRO.
On Dec. 9, 2020, Bell Flight’s Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) flew with 110 lb of payload over an 8-mile route at Bell’s testing site near Fort Worth, Texas. To date, the APT test program has completed more than 300 flights.
“The APT flight test team continues to push the capabilities of our aircraft, and we are excited to hit this milestone,” says John Wittmaak, unmanned aerial systems program manager.
In 2021, Bell engineers plan to demonstrate several military and commercial operations with the APT while simplifying user interfaces and enhancing the aircraft’s autonomous features.
SkyVision team wins AUVSI award
The SkyVision joint effort between the Air Force, the state of Ohio, and industry partners won first place in the Technology & Innovation (Hardware – Platform) category of 2020’s Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI) Awards.
SkyVision’s ground-based detect and avoid capability enables UAS to sense and avoid other aircraft when operated remotely, especially when flown in beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) mode.
AeroVironment teams with Robotic Skies for UAS MRO
Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) provider AeroVironment Inc. is teaming with Robotic Skies, a global maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) network for UAS, to provide field maintenance, inspection, and repair support for AeroVironment customers.
Robotic Skies Founder and CEO Brad Hayden says, “With Robotic Skies, AeroVironment customers can get the benefit of high-quality, OEM-certified maintenance and the peace of mind knowing they can meet any maintenance-related waiver requirements.”
Founded in 2014, Robotic Skies has 200 independently owned and operated certified repair stations in its growing network, spanning more than 40 countries.
Air Force awards Lockheed Martin F-16 depot sustainment program
The contract value is estimated throughout 10 years and includes depot-level maintenance activities, predefined programmatic work, aircraft modification, and unplanned drop-in maintenance.
Work will be performed at the company’s Greenville, South Carolina site, establishing the first U.S.-based F-16 industry depot to support government-owned depots.
F-16s make up approximately 45% of the Air Force fighter fleet, and several modernization and structural programs will significantly increase depot level workload, as the Air Force plans to operate the F-16 for decades to come.
The contract depot will provide additional capacity for F-16 repair and modernization efforts to support nearly 2,000 F-16’s currently operating in 25 partner nations.
