How the Air Force uses lasers to put an F-16 wing back on. Inside the Service Life Extension Program at Hill Air Force Base, crews optically find the exact center of a fighter jet and rebuild the beam that holds the wing at 9Gs.
PPart I: How the U.S. Rebuilds a $100 Million Fighter Jet (Part I):
Part II: F-16 Extended Life: Replacing the Beam That Holds the Wing at 9Gs (Part II):
Part III: Behind the Scenes of Aircraft Battle Damage Repair (Part III):
Part IV: Inside the Only Place That Can Take an F-16 Completely Apart (Part IV):
This is part of our behind-the-scenes series inside the depot at Hill Air Force Base that keeps American airpower flying. To keep a 30-plus-year-old F-16 in the fight for decades more, the closure beam that anchors the wing has to be replaced and milled to a ten-thousandth of an inch, a part you can’t buy off the shelf, so they build it and machine it to the jet. We also get into why one of these jets was flying crooked, and how they bring it back to true.
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00:00 Aligning an F-16’s wing with lasers
01:05 The one beam that holds the wing at 9Gs
02:34 The cracked bulkhead they had to cut out
03:26 The 16 bolts that hold the wing on
05:45 Milling to a ten-thousandth of an inch
09:35 Why this jet flew crooked
source
I don’t miss the Fuckin 16! I loved the A-10 much more!
waste money and time on a junk 😂😂😂
I have a strong urge to a do a pull-up off the bulkhead
Flew at Plant 42. I learned so much walking the floor and talking to the technicians during their breaks. Thanks
It’s beautiful to hear them using standard measurements instead of metric.
oh cool they're using a tool that didnt exist in 2006 to solve a problem that was handled in the 1960s. can you say, tax extraction fraud scheme? thanks guys for taking my tax dollars and wasting military time. its gonna be fun to see all these scam defense companies run and hide when ww3 kicks off and suddenly we need results and not gimmicks. stop making my country less safe you evil jerks
For the love of God! Eliminate all of the Kapton wiring while youre in there!!! LOL ( former AF aircraft electrician )
Horrible camerawork. Between the constant shaking, zooming and panning, you can barely see a thing.
What a treat seeing my old bird getting the treatment in the background. 89-2083 was my jam from 96-98 when it was in the 524th/27th FW Cannon. Code one king during Operation Southern Watch 98. Great jet.
one of most interesting things that ryan macbeth walked was back up maintenance but not so much… referb if that’s the correct terminology 🎉
I could do this repair in my shop, I have those same ViseGrips!
Incredible work. It's hard enough, but they use US Imperial just to make it harder
Eh chuck her in the old bridgeport with some worn out sharpie marks and the dullest bits you found behind the mill and call it job done.
BEAMRULES!
i hope they didnt forgot to replace them seals and piston rings along with timing belts.
This is some really cool stuff.
This is a fascinating process and a subject we rarely get to see, anywhere. Excellent.
Thanks for the DIY tips.
So, every structure part has been physically altered from long-hour deployment. So each cannot be replaced by a new standard piece. That's why they have to refurbish it tailor-made.
That was way fresh guys. Thank you for the walk-through of things. 😀
Maybe make a jig boys