Quando l'austerità morde .....

[richelieu]

Quando l'austerità morde ..... anche i 'grandi' devono fare i conti coi bilanci che tendono inevitabilmente a dimagrire .....
L'USAF sta pertando studiando la possibilità di ricostruire gli pneumatici dei propri C-17 .....

C-17s Testing Tires That Can Be Retreaded ..... 9/15/2014

With budgets getting tighter, the Air Force is seeking to adopt a cost-saving practice the trucking industry has used for decades, putting new treads on worn out tires instead of throwing them away.
To advance that effort, the C-17 Global Reach Integrated Test Team at Edwards AFB, Calif., has been putting new Dunlop tires through rigorous testing to ensure they are able to handle the widely varying runway surfaces, weather conditions, and operational considerations the Globemaster IIIs will face.
“While structural integrity and load capability are tested in a laboratory, parameters such as wet-runway stopping distance and minimum aircraft turning radius have to be tested in the real world with a wet runway,” said Michael Quinton, 773rd Test Squadron project engineer, a release (*).
The Dunlop tires are intended to replace the Michelin tires that have been used on C-17s.
The key difference is that the Dunlops incorporate tighter geometric tolerances designed to facilitate retreading.
“No performance increases to the aircraft are expected as a result of the new tires, but increased number of retreads to a single tire casing and corresponding cost savings are anticipated,” Quinton said.

(*) ..... comunicato della 'Edwards AFB' ..... "C-17 treads into new territory" .....
http://www.edwards.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123424219


An Edwards C-17 performs a wet runway performance test on Edwards Runway 22L Aug. 20.
Since Dunlop Tire was selected as the supplier for the C-17 as the replacement tire, the C-17 Global Reach Integrated Test Team at Edwards AFB has been putting the C-17’s new Dunlop tires through wet-and-dry runway takeoff and landing performance tests.
(U.S. Air Force photo/ Ethan Wagner)

Fonte ..... il 'Daily Report' dell'AFA .....
.

[FAS]

Quando l'austerità morde ..... anche i 'grandi' devono fare i conti coi bilanci che tendono inevitabilmente a dimagrire .....
L'USAF sta pertando studiando la possibilità di ricostruire gli pneumatici dei propri C-17 .....

C-17s Testing Tires That Can Be Retreaded ..... 9/15/2014

With budgets getting tighter, the Air Force is seeking to adopt a cost-saving practice the trucking industry has used for decades, putting new treads on worn out tires instead of throwing them away.
To advance that effort, the C-17 Global Reach Integrated Test Team at Edwards AFB, Calif., has been putting new Dunlop tires through rigorous testing to ensure they are able to handle the widely varying runway surfaces, weather conditions, and operational considerations the Globemaster IIIs will face.
“While structural integrity and load capability are tested in a laboratory, parameters such as wet-runway stopping distance and minimum aircraft turning radius have to be tested in the real world with a wet runway,” said Michael Quinton, 773rd Test Squadron project engineer, a release (*).
The Dunlop tires are intended to replace the Michelin tires that have been used on C-17s.
The key difference is that the Dunlops incorporate tighter geometric tolerances designed to facilitate retreading.
“No performance increases to the aircraft are expected as a result of the new tires, but increased number of retreads to a single tire casing and corresponding cost savings are anticipated,” Quinton said.

(*) ..... comunicato della 'Edwards AFB' ..... "C-17 treads into new territory" .....
http://www.edwards.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123424219


An Edwards C-17 performs a wet runway performance test on Edwards Runway 22L Aug. 20.
Since Dunlop Tire was selected as the supplier for the C-17 as the replacement tire, the C-17 Global Reach Integrated Test Team at Edwards AFB has been putting the C-17’s new Dunlop tires through wet-and-dry runway takeoff and landing performance tests.
(U.S. Air Force photo/ Ethan Wagner)

Fonte ..... il 'Daily Report' dell'AFA .....
.

in questo caso è piu effetto dei loro workstream di lean...

io sono per lo spend to save, lo possono fare con i c17 solo perche hanno una particolare e raffinata filosofia di ridondanza dei pneumatici....

[richelieu]

Siamo costretti a continuare a tenerci i vecchi aerei ancora per anni ..... esclama sconsolato il comandante dell'Air Combat Command generale Hostage .....

Keeping An Obsolete Fleet .....

(John A. Tirpak - 9/18/2014)

The Air Force needs to keep its fourth generation fighters "through the end of the next decade," but won't be able to do much to make them more capable, said Air Combat Command boss Gen. Mike Hostage on Wednesday.
"Based on the budgets we just turned in, we had to … sacrifice" most of the refurbishment of the legacy fleet, he said during the four-star forum at AFA's Air & Space Conference in National Harbor, Md.
It was a "zero-sum game" between upgrading the older aircraft and recapitalizing with new ones, and the choice was made to move on to the F-35 and other combat systems, said Hostage.
Because there are "a very limited number" of F-22s to perform the air superiority job, some F-15s will be retained and they will get a few "key elements" of improvement, but the service-life extension program for the F-16, called CAPE, has "taken pretty heavy hits," he said.
Still, the service must keep the airplanes to have adequate capacity.
They would be useless without the fifth generation fleet of F-22s and F-35s to secure the airspace, however, said Hostage.
"You've got to have them both to be viable," he said.

Fonte ..... il 'Daily Report dell' AFA .....


..... mentre il CSM-USAF generale Welsh, alquanto melodrammaticamente, parla di 'aerei che stanno cadendo a pezzi' .....

“Airplanes are falling apart” he said during a presentation Tuesday at the Air Force Association’s annual conference.
“I don’t care if it’s B-1 oil flanges that are breaking and starting fires or if it’s F-16 canopy longerons that are cracking. There’s just too many things happening because our fleets are too old. They’re just flat too old. We have to re-capitalize.”

Fonte ..... Welsh on Aging Fleets: ‘Airplanes Are Falling Apart’ .....
http://www.dodbuzz.com/2014/09/16/welsh ... ing-apart/
.

[richelieu]

Niente può essere considerato al sicuro ..... neanche i programmi primari .....

Nothing is Safe From Sequester .....

Marc V. Schanz - 9/22/2014

Not even the Air Force’s top three acquisition programs will be protected if sequester returns in Fiscal 2016, said industry experts during a wide-ranging panel discussion at AFA’s Air & Space Conference last week.
James McAleese, founder of contracting consulting firm McAleese and Associates, said USAF spends about $24 billion annually on research, development, test, and evaluation, which far outstrips the other services.
While much of the Long-Range Strike Bomber program, one of the top three priorities, remains shrouded in secrecy, McAleese said the program is one of the few slated for an increase in RDT&E dollars, rising to around $3.3 billion by 2019 by most recent estimates.
If sequester returns however, the Air Force’s other two programs will be stressed—namely production of the F-35A strike fighter and the KC-46 tanker.
The LRS-B is largely “walled off” because it’s primarily still in development, he said.
A return of sequester in 2016 would effectively “flatline” the Department of Defense’s modernization efforts, as 60 percent of a 2016 sequester cut would target modernization accounts, some $115 billion, with only 35 percent from operations and maintenance.

Fonte ..... il 'Daily Report' dell' AFA .....
.