Engineering and Technology (RAAF in 1971).

by Air Vice-Marshal E. Hey

In fifty years the RAAF has kept pace with the rapid advance of engineering and science and today is a highly-trained technical body, with the latest equipment and in the forefront of military technology.

Fabric, starch and wire have given way to accurately machined metal spars and skins, the wood to aluminium alloys, high tensile steels, titanium and composite fibre materials, and the prop-less engines generate pounds of thrust in five figures.

Airborne radio reaches out across thousands of miles, guided weapons seek out their targets, supersonic aircraft intrude at low levels followings hills and valleys, the magnetic needle has developed into an inertial assembly of seven thousand parts, ejection seats and aircrew modules rocket from the aircraft in emergency, while many aircraft are braked by parachutes.

Aircraft are capable of flying at high speed and great height, they are pressurised and air-conditioned and serviced with oxygen.

Corporal Les Barnes, of No. 2 Aircraft Depot at RAAF Base, Richmond, checks gears from a Pratt & Whitney twin-row Wasp engine

They have an array of instruments and 'black boxes', are capable of operating in all weather conditions, and aerodynamically and mechanically they are fitted with scores of devices to achieve maximum military performance with reliability.

Huge search radars plot friend and foe, computers have replaced some men and many workshops have become laboratories. Today the term 'technical complexity' is an apt description of the situation. Present-day engineering responsibilities involve a vast number of engineering and scientific subjects, with the Air Force inventory consisting of substantial numbers of different types of aircraft and equipment from the factories of several countries; in addition the RAAF spreads across Australia to Malaysia and the Republic of Vietnam. The paragraphs that follow endeavour to cover the significant areas of today's engineering management essential to keep an effective RAAF.

The paramount aim of the engineering and maintenance management of the RAAF is to satisfy constantly the operational role of the RAAF as laid down by the Government. While there may be strong pressures tending to place emphasis in other directions, it is a fundamental rule that we must not be diverted from achieving the operational purpose of the RAAF. Consequently, engineering and maintenance policies are designed primarily to maintain operational effectiveness and efficiency in peacetime and in war. The responsibility of the overall technical task is that of the Air Member for Technical Services, who is head of the Engineer Branch.

The major objectives of the Engineer Branch with respect to aircraft, associated airborne equipment and other major systems are: airworthiness; high serviceability rate; operational readiness; operational effectiveness and economy. Of considerable importance is cost effectiveness which is constantly applied in the formulation of all maintenance policy.

Plans for the support of a new project commence as soon as possible and are intensified in detail on placement of a firm order and receipt of a delivery date. The latter determines priorities for all support tasks and facilities including such matters as, system of engineering control, spares assessing, determination of ground support equipment, specification of ,kills and training courses required, planning of workshops and hangars and consideration of the overall maintenance policy.

A decision which must be made early in the programme is the overall maintenance policy to be applied to new equipment. This policy is affected by numerous factors including equipment, cost of individual items, avoidance of unnecessary duplication of support equipment, the extent and location of existing maintenance facilities, manpower availability and an analysis of the length and cost of supply pipelines. The maintenance concept is often strongly influenced by the design and support concept intended by the military service which specified the design and development of the equipment especially, satisfy maintainability and reliability requirements.

A publication known as the Technical Maintenance Plan is compiled for each aircraft or major system and this lays down maintenance responsibility for the system as a whole and each of the assemblies, indicating in detail the extent and location servicing, repair and overhaul. This document systematically covers the aircraft or system so that it is a complete reference for use of technical personnel.

Facilities are of major importance in a modern air force and the nature and extent of these for a new project have to be planned in detail at an early date.

Today these are extensive and varied, and examples include maintenance hangars, engine overhaul shop and engine test house, electro-plating facilities, electronics systems workshop, towing vehicles, aircraft arrester equipment, airborne interception radar workshop, and facilities for guided weapons.

Today's aircraft require some new provisions such as engine run-up bays, liquid oxygen installations, workshops free from small dust particles, crew module servicing, and even an aircraft-taxi-through wash to prevent corrosion.

It can be appreciated that elaborate facilities are essential for aircraft such as Mirage, Orion and F-111.The estimation of spares support and ground support equipment required throughout the life of an aircraft project is an important and difficult task.

Instrument fitters at RAAF Base, Amberley, LAC John Hall (Guilford, Perth) at left, and LAC John Nicholls (Greenwich, Sydney), check an air position indicator.

This task is carried out to satisfy promulgated maintenance policy and depends on such related factors as operational effort, disposition of aircraft, and deployment plans. This task is carried out initially during the procurement of the aircraft and continues throughout most of its life. A large number of parameters are used in the determination and important ones are the degree of breakdown of an assembly, the extent of repair likely, the rate of wear or life, :he estimated usage rate, and the stores holding policy.

In the early stages this task is usually complicated by incomplete technical data, absence of failure rate and component lives information, changing designs and part numbers, lack of publications, lack of repair and overhaul information and the introduction of modifications. It is necessary for these activities to commence as early as practicable with the best data available at the time, and early ordering of long production lead time .1ems is most important. In the case of the Orion, over 200,000 line items were reviewed and, of these, orders placed for 74,000. Such items range from small washers costing perhaps two cents each to electronic 'black boxes' costing more than $100,000 each.

In the case of ground support equipment for both the F-111C and Orion, the nature and complexity of the electronic equipment installed necessitates the use of a very extensive range of complex and costly test equipment. For modern strike aircraft there is a central computer which is capable of automatically checking electronic units and, by the addition of adaptors and extenders, of checking many detailed circuits and components. In this area of spares, the Engineer Branch is responsible for stating the types and quantities of items to be procured. Attempts are being made constantly to improve procedures for spares assessing, and a complete systems analysis was made to match the introduction of E.D.P. while independent professional assistance is sought, and some time ago desk-type computers were introduced.

The acquisition of technical data is a most difficult and yet most vital aspect of management. The technical data includes maintenance and overhaul manuals, drawings and specifications, which must be readily available for reference by maintenance personnel. A military aircraft such as the F-4 involves some 2,000 individually distinct technical publications. These of course relate to the aircraft as a whole but also encompass all airborne equipment and ground support equipment, and a servicing schedule has to be compiled wherever necessary. An essential feature is ensuring that there is a system to maintain technical data complete and amended up to date, which in the case of drawings is recorded on microfilm aperture cards.

The training needs of officers and airmen has escalated considerably in recent years, and it is important at the outset to determine in depth the skills of tradesmen required for a new project. Training plans permit the right personnel to be selected and trained locally or overseas in sufficient time to set tip the workshops, receive the equipment, install and calibrate, and be capable of maintaining and operating it. Manpower is the most important element of the RAAF and 45 per cent of the total airmen are technical tradesmen.

With twenty-five major trade groupings, these men are trained as adults or as apprentices at the RAAF School of Technical Training, the School of Radio and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, with the apprentices after five years being recognised by the trade unions as fully qualified. With a policy of 55 per cent professionally qualified, engineer officers are educated to degree or diploma level while highly skilled and trained airmen are commissioned from the ranks. A percentage of officers are trained at the RAAF Academy, obtain pilots' wings and complete an operational tour before taking up engineering duties, which may include test flying at the Aircraft Research and Development Unit.

Initially, fairly large teams of engineer officers and technical airmen are sent overseas for training on new projects, and subsequently field training centres are established on units for the immediate training of additional personnel and continuation training throughout the life of the project. For the initial training and or continuation training, synthetic training devices are set up for major projects; for the Mirage, C130E, Orion and F-111 C, these range through many items from the flight control system to a mission simulator.

To help establish a project, contractor's field service engineers also are employed in RAAF units, and while employed initially in assisting with the training of personnel, they also are of value in trouble-shooting and as consultants. As a result of its career opportunity and training system, the RAAF possesses a highly skilled, stable and most competent technical element.

Management throughout the life of an aircraft requires continuous engineering support and analysis of management and maintenance systems. A continuous watch has to be kept on airworthiness and the performance of equipment, especially under varying climatic conditions and particularly to detect and correct technical defects. With the constant development of aircraft and associated equipment, many modifications, some very costly, are incorporated during their service life.

Each of these modifications must be separately developed or appraised, and accepted or rejected by RAAF engineers, whether a modification originates in the RAAF or is proposed by a manufacturer. In relation to the preservation of aircraft for war and long life, examples of two important aspects are corrosion and structural fatigue life.

The subject of safe structural fatigue life is one Linder constant surveillance, and in this field extensive use is made of the specialised knowledge and techniques available from the Aeronautical Research Laboratories and the local aircraft industry. At present extensive research programmes are being carried out on the fatigue life of the Mirage as affected by high speed flight kinetic heating, on the Macchi in its specialised RAAF training role, and on a number of aspects of the F-111C moving into new technology.

Management systems are constantly examined and, as necessary, documentation for the servicing of aircraft is reviewed. Special attention is given to systems that ensure a high state of operational readiness, such as maintenance by replacement on the flight line, rapid workshop turnaround time, and minimum pipelines. This is an area of constant change, as it is RAAF policy to remain flexible and adjust its engineering and maintenance systems to ensure achievement of the main objectives wherever and in what manner the aircraft or major system is employed.

Motor mechanics make a tappet adjustment on a Rolls Royce engine during an overhaul of a RAAF fire truck. Corporal R. Benton (Belmont, New South Wales) left, and LAC C. L. Bruggy (Tumby Bay, South Australia), work at the Ground Equipment Maintenance Squadron of No. 1 Aircraft Depot at Laverton, Victoria.

Significant changes that have taken place over recent years include modular design of equipment, extremely high cost of airborne equipment and ground support equipment, design for reliability, design for increased maintenance adjacent to aircraft, elimination of the overhaul of 'black boxes', greater extension of maintenance 'on condition', provision of in-built self test facilities, and much more elaborate and extensive ground support equipment including a large range of test equipment.

As an example of an improved system, the RAAF has a new failure reporting system which provides input data to the E.D.P. centre in Canberra and prints out reports to management at regular intervals or on demand. It is worth emphasising that considerable planning is taken up with the maintenance of ground support equipment for this has now become very complex and extensive. Several hundred types of individual specialised items for the maintenance of each type of aircraft are required, and in addition to the aircraft themselves maintenance of this equipment entails a heavy workload for skilled tradesmen and the provision of adequate workshops and storage space.

In the special case of electronic and instrument ground support equipment, a series of precision measuring equipment laboratories have been established throughout the RAAF and these are responsible for the servicing and calibration of highly accurate test equipment.

To assist in achieving operational readiness with modern aircraft weapons systems, ground support equipment is designed for air mobility, and in accordance with this policy the RAAF already has a large number of air transportable workshop cabins that are operable almost immediately after unloading from Hercules aircraft.

So far emphasis has been on aircraft and airborne equipment because aircraft as such are obviously the basic vehicle in the exercise of air power. However, the same principles apply to ground telecommunications, including point-to-point communication systems, air traffic control towers and

Steady hands and a sharp eye are needed for this delicate work. An instrument technician, AC Bill Higgins (Byron Bay) works on an altimeter in the Amberley instrument section.

associated air traffic and navigational aids, and air defence units. The engineering control and maintenance of armaments, including guided weapons, torpedoes and all explosive stores, is based on the same management concept and a continuing surveillance is essential to ensure these munitions will function with the highest degree of reliability at all times.

The organisation and administration employed by the RAAF to achieve the engineering and maintenance objectives, encompass the Department of Air and the two Command Headquarters, aircraft depots, maintenance units and the RAAF Aircraft Research and Development Unit together with assistance from Department of Supply laboratories and the aircraft industry; all these are used in the best way to achieve the role of the RAAF. The RAAF engineering organisation is widely spread and includes maintenance units in Malaysia and the Republic of Vietnam, with resident engineers at contractors' works to supervise RAAF interests in manufacture, engineering, overhaul and repair both here and overseas, and engineers stationed in London, Paris, Washington and Italy.

The effectiveness of any system should be judged by the results achieved. On this basis today, the RAAF is achieving its operational and training goals with a high standard of safety, serviceability rate, and operational achievement.