Aircraft metal technology shop crafts precision art to repair jets

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Aaron J. Jenne
  • 4th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. --  When something breaks on a fighter jet and the faulty item can't be fixed or ordered, the Airmen of the 4th Equipment Maintenance Squadron aircraft metals technology shop step up.

The AMT shop primarily supports the aircraft maintenance squadron by constructing or making one-time repairs on parts by welding, refitting, bracing to ensure they don't break again.

"Most of the time, what we're called to make is an item that's not in stock and can't be ordered," said Senior Airman James Nipe, 4th EMS AMT technician. "We have an old airframe, our Strike Eagles are 25 years old and some parts aren't manufactured anymore. That's where we come in. If we have the blueprints, we can make it."

They don't always have the blueprints though, said Tech. Sgt. Gregory St. Onge, 4th EMS AMT assistant section chief. When no blueprints are present, AMT Airmen need to reverse engineer the parts, creating their own blueprints, to make the parts.

"If we're not able to order or make a replacement part here, the part, or sometimes the entire jet, is sent to Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, for repairs, or they send a crew here to fix the part," St. Onge said. "Either way, the jet could be down for up to a couple weeks depending on the extent of the damage."

To increase the likelihood that the shop can reproduce any metal aircraft part, its Airmen are certified to weld seven metals, including aluminum, stainless steel and titanium. They also learn to weld these types of metal with three different types of machines.

According to Nipe, welding is a valuable skill when making strong metal components and being experienced on several machines is a versatile tool to have.

"Being proficient with different welding machines gives options," Nipe said. "When we have more options, we can work faster and produce better products. We generally use TIG welders when fixing aircraft components because this method gives us clean, precise and controlled welds. MIG welders are pretty much point and shoot, and arc welders are pretty dirty."

While the shop spends a lot of time welding pieces together, welding isn't always the answer to fixing or creating a part.

To improve the strength of an item, the shop has several Computer Numeric Control machines that allow Airmen to carve a three-dimensional item out of a solid block of metal. Airmen create a computer rendering in a program to translate blueprints into a series of coordinates used by the machine to create the final product. This allows Airmen to produce a very precise product in a fraction of the time it would take to make by hand.

"We measure by a thousandth of an inch," St. Onge said. "Take a human hair and split it three times, that's a thousandth of an inch. Generally, we are only allowed a tolerance of one to 20 thousandths of an inch depending on the technical orders. If we don't meet tolerance, we need to start over. The margin of error is very, very small and our Airmen excel at precision. They have very strict limits and they really focus on perfection."

Senior Airman Caleb Wren, 4th EMS AMT technician, said when the AMT shop isn't busy crafting parts, they provide support to other units across the installation, repairing broken items and teaching other shops how to use welding or CNC equipment.

It would seem that a career so focused on precision would be best suited for a robot, but according to Wren, his job is just as much art as it is science.

"The thing I like most about my job is that I'm paid to be an artist," Wren said. "My medium is metal and my paintbrush is a welding rod. When someone comes to us with a problem we use our minds to think of a solution and use our hands to make some elegant contraption that gets the job done. I go home happy every day because I get to do what I love, and I know there's a good chance that something I made will save someone's life someday."