Old as they are, the Eagles are relatively new compared with B-52s, which first flew in 1954, and KC-135 tankers, a military version of the Boeing 707, which airlines retired 20 years ago. Most of the F-15Cs based here were built in the early 1980s and have more than 5,000 hours on their airframes. And even if the Air Force is allowed to proceed with plans to buy the F-22 and the Joint Strike Fighter, a somewhat cheaper jet with more limited stealth characteristics, the fleet's average age is still projected to hit 30 years by 2015. The average age of its 6,300 aircraft is 22 years, twice that of the U.S. The Navy is seeking billions to maintain its 310-ship fleet as well as to modernize its carrier-based aircraft and Marine helicopters, many of which date from the Vietnam War.īut the aging machinery problem is largest in the Air Force. The Army wants to maintain all 10 of its divisions while it searches for funds to upgrade 19 aging weapons systems, from the M1-A1 tank to the Black Hawk helicopter. Army and Navy officials share the same fears about Rumsfeld's transformation plans as they, too, confront aging equipment, exacerbated by the decline in spending in the 1990s that they caustically refer to as the Pentagon's "procurement holiday." Moreover, the Air Force is not alone in seeking big spending increases. O'Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution, argues in a new book on defense modernization that the Air Force's plans to buy 340 F-22s - the most radar-evading, or "stealthy," fighter jet ever designed - actually would hurt the United States in wartime by draining money for spare parts and precision munitions. Indeed, some analysts contend that the Air Force has mainly itself to blame for its geriatric fleet, given its penchant for buying aircraft that are twice as expensive as the ones they replace. Rumsfeld and Congress on a multibillion-dollar plan for modernizing its fleet with hundreds of next-generation F-22s and Joint Strike Fighters over the next 20 years.īut with Rumsfeld eyeing funds for "leap ahead" advances in unmanned combat air vehicles, satellites and space weapons in a fiscal environment suddenly constrained by this year's $1.35 trillion tax cut, few defense analysts believe the Air Force will be able to buy its way out of the aging aircraft problem. The Air Force still hopes to sell Defense Secretary Donald H. "They break more often."įirst flown in the 1970s, the F-15 is emblematic of the Air Force's aging planes and skyrocketing maintenance costs. "They rattle, they shake, they're old," he said of the venerable Eagle. Frank Logan describes a daily exercise in maintenance triage. The practice has become so routine that mechanics refer to this inglorious resting place as the "can dock." At any given moment, two F-15Cs are designated as "can birds" - spare parts trolleys - to keep the 1st Fighter Wing's other 64 aging Eagles in the air. But even if you could get nuts to fit, interchanging them it is not suggested and could cause damage to the wheel or worse.In the back of a vast hangar at Langley Air Force Base, America's premier fighter jet, the F-15C Eagle, plays a new role in today's Air Force: It is being cannibalized for parts. ![]() ![]() In some cases, the hardware won’t interchange, because sizes and threads are different. Ball-seat nuts, for stud-piloted systems, and the new, two-piece flange nuts for hub-piloted systems, work totally differently. There are no inner nuts in hub-piloted wheel systems. ![]() While the Hub piloted wheels metal projections, called the “tangs” provide the proper alignment. So, you need more nuts, do more labor installing and removing them, and need four different types of nuts in inventory. You need both right-hand and left-hand threads, for the right and left sides of the vehicle. To position the wheels on axle ends, the The Stud piloted wheels use the studs and ball-seat cap nuts. If you consider duals only, you cut your fastener inventory in half. While in hub-piloted wheels there are no inner nuts in hub-piloted wheel systems. With tandem axles on both tractor and trailer, which means: 8 duals x 20 nuts ea. In hardware, Stud-piloted dual wheels require both inner and outer nuts – total of 20 per dual assembly.
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