JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- Personnel from the 305th Air Mobility Wing began an initiative to streamline C-17 Globemaster III engine changes, July 27, here.
The unit kicked off the continuous process improvement initiative, scheduled to begin Sept. 18-22 with a charter signing event. The initiative was brought on because of an increase in engine change times for all C-17 aircraft.
These new improvements have the potential to be used across the Air Force and will be implemented at the discretion of each C-17 aircraft maintenance unit. Some of the changes to be made may be as simple as creating dedicated engine change tool kits to make the process more efficient.
During an analysis of C-17 engine changes, inefficiencies spanning two years were found to have increased C-17 downtime by 43 percent. Currently C-17 engine change times can take anywhere from 24 to 36 hours.
“The C-17 is probably the greatest air lifter in the history of the Air Force and the history of aviation,” said Scott A. Haines 305th Maintenance Group deputy director of maintenance. “It offers a broad range of missions and it can be used anywhere.”
These changes are expected to improve the C-17s performance by reducing the amount of time that the aircraft has to sit for maintenance thus keeping it available to support the warfighter.
“It’ll allow us to free up [aircraft maintainers] to do something else if we can reduce the amount of time it takes to do that engine change,” said Haines. “Whenever we do an engine change it’s very high demand on our resources and personnel.”
These changes are expected to affect both maintainers and aircrew personnel.
“Going forward with our execution there will be no question on how we actually do our engine changing process,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Melvin J. Smith, 305th Maintenance Squadron team lead. “If they are downrange and stuck and need to change an engine, they will know the exact time it should take to change that engine to get back into the air.”