Photo By Victor Pitts | JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Fleet Readiness Center Southeast personnel conduct load-bearing...... read more read more
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Tucked away in a corner at Fleet Readiness Center Southeast (FRCSE) sat an old, rusted, and dented piece of machinery that was deemed useless and headed for the scrap yard. At 2 a.m. Friday morning, that piece of equipment made history as it was used to move a T-6 Texan II aircraft 20 miles west to Cecil Commerce Center.
Transporting aircraft to Cecil became a necessity this month when the Naval Air Station Jacksonville (NAS JAX) runway was shut down for renovation and repair. NAS JAX and FRCSE leadership began planning for this major renovation several years ago. One of the concerns for the planning group was how to fly repaired and reworked aircraft back to the fleet, according to Jay Bennington, manufacturing supervisor for FRCSE Plant Services Department.
“One of the original options was to transport the aircraft to Naval Station Mayport using a barge, and fly them out from there, but we estimated it would be too costly,” he said. “Another thought was to tow each aircraft, but engineers determined the nose gear on some of the aircraft could not handle the stress of the 20-mile trip to Cecil.”
After weeks of deliberation, the group decided the best course of action would be to use a trailer to carry the aircraft to Cecil. However, a trailer did not exist that could handle the unique requirements of the trainer aircraft: the T-6 Texan II, T-34 Turbomentor, and T-44 Pegasus.
Ironically, an old metal chipper mounted on a trailer—used to chop up old aircraft parts so they could be recycled—would find itself being repurposed. With the chipper removed, FRCSE Mechanical Engineer Aaron Clausen began developing blueprints to redesign the trailer.
He said the trailer had to be improved in such a way that it could fit all three of the trainer aircraft and be strong enough to handle the load.
“It was great to come up with a solution to the problem,” said Clausen. “It was a lot of fun finding a way to repurpose that old thing.”
The trailer needed to be lengthened, widened, and strengthened before it was ready for the task of bearing the load of the aircraft, according to Bennington.
“We used virtually all scrap material too,” he said. “Even the tires came from another piece of equipment. Because all of the moves would be at night, we added flashing lights and floodlights that point to the wing tips and the tail so they could be seen.”
Several months and approximately 500 man-hours later, the remodeled trailer was ready for initial load-bearing tests.
“We gave it a new design, new wheels, new fenders and a brand new paint job … and a new purpose,” said FRCSE Maintenance Mechanic Willie Raymond, who helped with the manufacturing process. “Franken-trailer is a good name for it, although it doesn’t look like Frankenstein, it turned out great.”
The trailer will transport more than 40 aircraft during the runway renovation.
| Date Taken: | 07.01.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 07.01.2015 11:03 |
| Story ID: | 168769 |
| Location: | NAVAL AIR STATION JACKSONVILLE, FL, US |
| Web Views: | 239 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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