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Volume 8, No. 2
Summer 2012
- Air Force Academy's CAStLE Provides Structural Sustainment Research for a Broad Aerospace Community
The Center for Aircraft Structural Life Extension (CAStLE), the Air Force Academy’s largest cadet research program, has grown into a research facility that provides technology required to maintain aging aircraft and national infrastructure. Today CAStLE functions as a de facto government lab, overseeing an impressive array of DoD sustainment contracts. Cynthia Greenwood explores CAStLE’s record of delivering products and services to the greater aerospace and aircraft structural community, as well as the many ways it supports and benefits from cadet research in the academy’s Department of Engineering Mechanics. (Read More...)
- A History of CAStLE's Evolution
CAStLE research engineers and Air Force Academy cadets are committed to doing research that keeps the Air Force’s aging aircraft fleet in operation by extending life cycles, lowering maintenance costs, and improving pilot safety. Since 1995, CAStLE’s original mission has evolved considerably from its original focus on aircraft bonded repair to providing structural integrity technology for the Air Force and broader aerospace community. This timeline charts the evolution and growth of the mission of the Air Force Academy’s largest research center. (Read More...)
- A 'Remote' Answer To Detect And Mitigate Hidden Corrosion Is Anything But!
The Air Force Corrosion Office has worked with Aging Aircraft Consulting to develop a new approach to mitigating corrosion in the remote areas of an aircraft. Chris Grethlein and David Ellicks review the Air Force’s adoption of the borescope, and how its use has allowed field units to integrate the new technology into their scheduled maintenance processes without having to tear down significant portions of their aircraft. (Read More...)
- Cold-Weather Vinyl Coating Tested at Alaska Training Range
A new type of vinyl coating system that can be applied in sub-freezing temperatures also complies with emission standards for volatile organic compounds. In this article, Dana Finney discusses how a construction-engineering laboratory at the Army’s Engineer Research and Development Center demonstrated the coating on a bridge at Yukon Training Range, Alaska, and what is involved in monitoring the coating’s performance. (Read More...)
- Fairchild’s Fabrication Flight is ‘Key’ to the Stratotanker’s Success
The Air Force purchased its first KC-135 Stratotankers—aerial refueling aircraft—in 1954, so the fleet of approximately 37 aircraft at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, is 58 years old. Scott King discusses how each of the three divisions of the 92nd Maintenance Squadron Fabrication Flight group is key to the KC-135 fleet's longevity. (Read More...)
- Department of Defense Major Corrosion Events: The Way Ahead
In keeping with initiatives that would enhance efficiency in federal spending, the Corrosion Policy and Oversight Office has modified the way in which it executes its upcoming DoD corrosion conferences. The key purpose of these corrosion forums as conduits for collaboration and information sharing among federal entities, industry, and academia remains of paramount importance. This article reviews the way ahead for the major corrosion events between 2013 through 2017. (Read More...)
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