Fighter Jet News

F-16 Fighting Falcon News

F-16s worked at Ogden ALC pass 6,000 hours flying time

May 11, 2005 (by 1st LT. Caroline Wellman) - The first of the block 25 F-16 Fighting Falcons passed the 6,000-hour milestone earlier this year, and four more are expected to do so later this year, thanks in part to the engineering and depot-level modification efforts of the Ogden ALC.
The F-16, which would normally be grounded around the 4,000-hour mark, is still flying because of the efforts of the 508th Fighter Sustainment Group engineers here who develop the major modification programs for the F-16 and the 309th Maintenance Wing technicians who perform them.

"The job we do literally keeps aircraft available for the warfighter," said Tim Sorensen, chief engineer for F-16 Structures and Mechanical Systems. "Our mission is to keep planes in the air."

Throughout the aircraft's life, the F-16 undergoes various modifications and upgrades, said Mr. Sorensen. The first of the block 25 aircraft to cross the 6,000-hour mark went through the Falcon Service Life Improvement Program.
Aircraft modifications increase the time aircraft can fly without being grounded. The Falcon SLIP modification involved modification to bulkheads and load-bearing skins on the upper fuselage.

Throughout the life of the F-16, engineers here have developed several major modification programs for the aircraft. In addition to Falcon SLIP, engineers spearheaded the Falcon Unos Programmum modification, which combined several different modifications into one program; and Falcon Structural Augmentation Roadmap program modification, which modifies areas of the airframe not modified during Falcon UP or Falcon SLIP.

Engineers develop major modifications based on data that is tracked for every F-16 in the U.S. Air Force and foreign military sales program.

"We get engineering requests from various units, and we compile that data," Mr. Sorensen said. "We also monitor how the plane is flown and compare that data to the original design of the aircraft. If it's being flown more severely than intended, engineers can predict where the aircraft will break and when. We can design necessary modifications to prevent that from happening."

After the modifications are developed, the work is performed by maintenance technicians as aircraft come in for regularly scheduled depot maintenance.
The 309th Maintenance Wing's Aircraft Maintenance Group completes those overhauls in here in a matter of months.

It's all in a day's work for Team Hill's engineers and technicians.

"We didn't really do anything special to make this happen," Mr. Sorensen said. "We're all just doing our jobs."


Courtesy of Ogden ALC Public Affairs Republished with kind permission of Hilltop Times.

Additional images:

BAF F-16A, #FA-66, during landing at Kleine-Brogel AFB [Photo by Janssens Ronny]