Grounded Greyhound Flies Again After Nearly Four Years
Navy NewsStand
Story Number: NNS050923-19
Release Date: 9/23/2005 9:00:00 PM
By Bill Bartkus, Naval Air Systems Command Depot North Island Public Affairs
CORONADO, Calif. (NNS) -- The first completely-rewired C-2A Greyhound left the Naval Air Systems (NAVAIR) Depot North Island Sept. 12 after sitting on the ground for three and a half years.
Naval aviators flew the improved Greyhound to NAVAIR Headquarters in Patuxent River, Md., where the $40 million carrier onboard delivery (COD) aircraft will go through the verification process before being returned to the fleet.
“We (the Depot) mark the completion of the very first rewired C-2 Greyhound. The idea to rewire this aircraft began in October 1993, and now we mark a milestone as we say farewell,” said Joe Caoile, E-2/C-2 product manager, to product line employees and special guests.
The rewiring is part of the Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) and includes structural enhancements that provide the C-2A with the capability for 36,000 landings and 50,000 flight hours. “SLEP is necessary to make the C-2A a viable and economically maintainable platform until it is replaced,” said Caoile.
The Navy has only 36 Greyhounds. The first of two prototypes first took to the skies in 1964. The original Greyhounds were overhauled in 1973 to extend their operational life, and the Navy has no replacement in line for the aging C-2A. This is where SLEP enters the picture.
The NAVAIR Depot North Island workforce is giving each Greyhound a complete makeover from nose to tail. Each of these aircraft will go through SLEP to increase its operating service life. The changes include structural enhancements, rewiring, improvements in avionics systems and a new propeller system.
The C-2A provides critical logistics support to carrier strike groups, and without the Greyhound these groups would not survive at sea as they do. The Greyhound, piloted by experienced naval aviators, delivers precious cargo, mail and personnel from shore to sea.
“The aircraft is equipped with miles of wires and thousands of connectors, clamps and splices that were installed by Depot artisans to accomplish its mission,” Caoile affirmed. “It also took thousands of hours to plan and to write the documents and directives to make the modification come alive. Numerous parts had to be procured and delivered to put the aircraft back together, and it took a good number of hours to ground and flight test everything.”
But Caoile said that the immense task could not have been done without the workforce.
“It is all about the people,” he said, “just as AIRSpeed is about people who are encouraged and empowered to think differently about their work and about changing their behaviors and habits. The completion of the [first] aircraft took creativity, innovation and teamwork from a diverse group of people to make the aircraft come to life and to fly again.”
Caoile credited engineers for developing the design that worked, logisticians for making the design tangible and real, planners who made the design and logistics executable, and support groups and supply department for acquiring the logistics that fit the design and planned its execution.
“This important task took a cross-functional production workforce to piece it all together. It took a seasoned and heroic flight crew to make the aircraft do what it was designed to do,” said Caoile. “And it took a dedicated management to lead a crew, supervise a shop, and manage a product line to oversee the project from NAVAIR to engaging in consistent communication with all stakeholders that made the project a reality.”
Caoile mentioned that there are 34 more Greyhounds waiting their turn to be rewired, and one such aircraft at the Depot is 70 percent complete. “It will take just as much dedication and teaming by the same diverse group of people to finish the aircraft. We have no doubt that the Depot will complete this all-important mission,” he said.
“This has been a long, hard journey with many challenges,” said engineer Donald Sano, the depot’s C-2 SLEP integrated product team (IPT) lead. “We crossed a number of hills and valleys.”
Sano said that in 22 months, the team red-lined, revised, and created 13,000 pages of manufacturing drawings and technical publications. “This alone was an amazing effort,” he said. “In the same 22-month period, the team oversaw the manufacture of more than 100,000 parts and also created a unique database which will help the fleet in the years to come, with 260,000 entries and counting.”
According to Sano, the team installed 23 miles of wiring. He thanked the rewire team “for providing the warfighter with – after demonstration testing – a more reliable and much safer aircraft.” Sano also recognized the leadership of the C-2 Integrated Process Team at NAVAIR Headquarters who attended the ceremony.
NAVAIR provides cost-wise readiness and dominant maritime combat power to make a great Navy and Marine Corps team better.
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