European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 6, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Frlic Jay March a 1967 the stars and stripes Pago 9 designers draw on airmen s kit ova How b Mark Walsh by turf bar cub Span Dahlem a Germany aircraft maintenance workers in Spang Dahlum big Hurt and Ramstein air bases May have a say in designing a next generation aircraft lie advanced tactical fighter Blue two a team of defense contractors and air Craft design engineers i working alongside mechanics and Crew chiefs this week 10 see what problem the airmen have with systems thai the Engineer de sign. The goal is to design the fighter so it is in the air More than on the ground Tor repairs. What we really have to do on this aircraft it what we Call operational performance Over time said Brig. Gen. Frank Goodell special assistant to the air Force Deputy chief of staff Tor reliability and maintainability. This All boil Down to the fact that you would be very upset if every time you came Home with your car you had to put it in a garage and have a Mechanic and parts store available of Odell said we want to build the at More like an automobile build it so j does t break very often and when it Breaks be Able to i it fast As the team members made their Way throughout Spang Dahlum hangars their eyes and ears were open to some Peculiar problems in maintaining aircraft. Several of the visitors watched As . Ricardo Hernandez of he s2nd aircraft generation so Dis mantled part of an f-4 to gel to a component inside the to Lake. The null and bolts were secured with roller keys and in such confined spaces that in took Hernandez nearly an hour just to remove them. He worked on one toilet key Tor nearly 30 minutes. Ii finally came off in Small pieces. Hernandez said the biggest problem he has with the f-4 ii acres. Once 1 get the Colter keys off the Bolu come off and getting behind the Inlet ramp to the actuator is a piece of cake he said. Eliminating i. Access problem is crucial to the engineers who want the at to spend toss Lime on the ground for maintenance. Robert Sandusky Northrop s chief Engineer for the at program donned a chemical warfare suit and tried to do routine tasks on the f-4, now i can Sec How a relatively simple Job of just a Quick disconnect of a Hydraulic line becomes difficult with this Bulky chem suit on Sandusky said. If the Guy who designed this disconnect system was out Here in the Field and saw How difficult it is to do �13 photo by huh wlwla.1.c, Mario he murex demo Funta maintenance problems to Donald Kuzt Otral of Mcdonnell Douglas. It would have never been designed that Way. It Good to be out Here to see for myself just what the problems Ore rather that getting a theoretical picture of it on the drawing table.1 Rick Abell director of engineering for the at program at Wright Patterson fab Ohio said the difficulty of aircraft maintenance is being brought Home to the Blue two team. You just can t sit in your i ill drawing room. With your Little Board and your Little computer and think you know what you Are talking about Abell said. By this visit we ii show the designers what we did wrong with the f-4 and f-15 so we Don t go wrong when we go to the  Abell said pail designs look maintenance support equipment and technical orders into consideration after the aircraft was almost Complete. They should be considered Early in the design phase so they can be developed along with the aircraft he said. I want them to gel the message from the troops unvarnished take in Back to their designers and Tell these people they have to understand just what the one or iwo so Riper has logo through when working on his air plane he said. I m going to keep hammering on these Guys that if they want to keep the at in the air they re going to have to make it easier for the Guys on the ground. Dod officials disagree on replacement for diva Washington a the . Army s plans for replacing its junked sgt. York air defense gun have been thrown into disarray by an internal Pentagon dispute Over whether a Stopgap system should be purchased from a european concern the service s top officer acknowledged wednesday. Gen. John a. Wickham jr., army chief of staff said a master plan unveiled by the service just two weeks ago for pro Viding the army with better defences against enemy aircraft was now bring held in abeyance. Richard p. Godwin the lop Pentagon official responsible for weapons Pur chases has told the army to delay issuing a request for bids for a Stopgap sys tem and they have not made a decision As to How we re going to go about this Wickham said. If a decision to scrap the Purchase of a Stopgap weapon stands the United states will risk alienating some of its nato allies. The Only air defense weapons currently on the Market that meet army specifications Are made in Europe. The sgt York which was also known As the diva or division air defense gun consisted of a modified tank Chas Sis two 40mm Cannon and a radar sys tem. After More than seven years of development work and an investment of ii.8 billion defense Secretary Caspar w. Weinberger scrapped the weapon on aug. 27,1985, saying it simply could not protect Lank columns from modern soviet helicopters. While hailed by congressional critics As the right move the cancellation of the sgt. York left the army without a weapon considered sufficiently lethal to protect its divisions against modern aircraft. According to Pentagon sources the army has always preferred to concen trate on developing and Fielding a Brand new weapon  the sgt. York. But Congress concerned the service would not move quickly enough to protect its troops and tanks ordered a decision on the matter by nov. 26, 1987. At a congressional hearing last month Wickham said the army intended to buy 80 off the shelf anti Aires nil rocket weapons As a Stopgap measure to satisfy congressional concerns while pursuing development Ofa final replacement. That would allow Fielding of the Stop Gap system by 1989 and the final replace ment by 1994, he added. The Purchase of a Stopgap system also would prove a major Boon to a european concern because the Only interim sys tems meeting the army s specifications arc British aerospace s rapier anti air Craft missile system and the rotund ii Ami aircraft weapon system made by a Franco German consortium. Earlier this week the Trade publication defense week reported army undersecretary James Ambrose had unexpectedly moved to Block the plan and return the service s focus 10 concentrating on development Ofa new weapon. The publication quoted Pentagon sources As saying Ambrose had won Godwin s backing for the change in plans which will require congressional approval. Pioneer 9 declared dead gave years of service Washington a Nasa s Pioneer 9 spacecraft which helped scientists predict solar so trans and measure solar winds was declared officially dead wednesday More than is years since it began orbiting the Sun. We re sorry to lose Pioneer 9, but it had its Day in Law Sun said Pioneer Engineer Robert Jackson. The solar powered spacecraft launched nov. 8, 1968, will continue to orbit the Sun but in Alt likelihood will never again transmit data to Earth the National aeronautics and space administration said. Pioneer 9 outlived All of Nasa s expectations As it continued to provide a Stream of data to scientists More than 1s years after its six month design life ended. Scientists received the last signal from Pioneer 9 on May in 1983, and since then have been trying unsuccessfully to reach it when equipment availability and the positions of the Earth Sun i7 Days fora total of 22 orbits. The Pioneer Fleet made the first de tailed measurements of the solar wind solar magnetic Field and cosmic rays. They also fed scientists data on solar Stormy which can affect communications and electrical Power on Earth