307th Bomb Wing jets get innovative treatment

Representatives from Boeing, SEMPRE, Northrop Grumman, Skydio, and Near Earth Autonomy demonstrated multiple technologies on the B-52 Stratofortress here, July 16.

Leadership and B-52 maintainers from Air Force Global Strike Command, Air Mobility Command, and the 8th Air Force were on hand as the various companies demonstrated potential maintenance capabilities for the 60-year-old airframe using a combination of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), AI software, stand-alone networks, and augmented reality devices.

Several of the demonstrations revolved around improving physical scans of the aircraft, a time-consuming and potentially dangerous process for maintainers. 

“Our maintainers do physical scans of the aircraft every 180 days and again every 450 flight hours, but there are areas that are difficult and time-consuming to inspect due to access,” said Master Sgt. Brett Jordan, the 307th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron production superintendent.

One proposed solution involved a two-person team from Near Earth Autonomy scanning the surface of two Air Force Reserve Command B-52s with a proprietary, 35 pound drone, which sent information via a secure network to Boeing’s artificial intelligence enabled software.

 The software then provided instant feedback on problem areas on the jet’s surface.

The network, provided by SEMPRE, served as the backbone of the demonstration by providing a self-contained unit called the SEMPRE T.

The transportable unit is hardened against electromagnetic pulses and combines a 5G cellular network, decentralized hybrid cloud, and satellite gateway in remote and contested environments.

“Things that would normally knock a network off the air won’t affect the SEMPRE T,” said Jon Huppenthal, SEMPRE chief technology officer. “It can be unpacked from a plane and be fully operational from a remote location with no connectivity in approximately 15-20 minutes.”

Barksdale maintainers beat Huppenthal’s estimates, getting the SEMPRE T operational in 10 minutes, providing Boeing, Near Earth Autonomy, and Northrop Grumman with a secure network augmented by anti-tamper sensors, a zero-trust architecture, and end-to-end encryption.

Using the SEMPRE T network, the Near Earth Autonomy’s drone used a pre-programmed flight pattern to scan the B-52’s surface in a few minutes, a task that would ordinarily take several maintainers hours to complete.

Hundreds of photos from the drone were sent in real-time to Boeing’s Automated Damage Detection Software (ADDS), which employs an advanced AI algorithm to sift through the data and quickly detect anomalies in the jet’s skin, including corrosion, missing seals, and paint delamination.

“ADDS pinpoints anomalies so that when maintainers have to harness up and put themselves in danger by going 40 feet up to work on a tail, they know exactly where to go and how to fix it,” said Scott Belanger, a retired Air Force maintenance officer who now works on Boeing’s Contested Logistics Solutions Team.

NEA and Boeing have employed ADDS on C-17 Globemasters at Joint-Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam as part of a three-pillared inspection program for the past three years.

“Home station checks on a C-17 used to take eight to nine hours, not including harnessing up and bringing in lifts,” said Belanger. “We’ve been able to reduce that time to three hours, and the process is exponentially safer.”

Beyond safety and efficiency, Belanger said the data improves accuracy, citing studies that show the average anomaly detection rate on aircraft by humans is 50%.

“We’ve been able to bring that rate up to 94%,” said Belanger. “The technology doesn’t replace maintainers; it just elevates their ability to find problem areas and remedy them.”

Like Near Earth Autonomy, Skydio also provided scanning capabilities, but in a smaller, more deployable UAS that can be used in garrison as well as remote and contested environments.

That UAS includes an X10D drone, which weighs under five pounds and can be folded into a package 13 inches long and hand-carried in a small case.

Peyton Knippel, Skydio’s Director of Business for Air and Space Forces, said the company’s UAS is designed for ease of use even if the operator has no previous drone experience.

“The XD10 uses a series of steps to set up the scan in only four minutes, so cognitive load in a stressful environment is significantly reduced,” he said. “You just have to follow the steps.”

Knippel cited a recent event where maintainers who had never flown a drone had to fly the XD10 on short notice.

“We taught them the fundamentals, they followed the steps, and they had the mission flown in 30 minutes,” he said.

The Skydio UAS records aircraft photos on a micro-SD card, which can be directly transferred to ADDS after a flight without a network.

While drones and AI played a significant role in the demonstration, so did augmented reality.

Northrop Grumman showcased the ability to combine AR in a wholly encrypted environment to ensure maintenance accuracy.

Their team demonstrated how maintainers in remote environments could use AR-enabled glasses to collaborate with subject matter experts in other parts of the world through the SEMPRE T to address maintenance problems on the B-52.

Michael Hinkley, Northrop Grumman’s Sector Manager for Advanced Manufacturing, said the AR system allows maintainers to reach across the world to get real-time help without fear of unfriendly forces finding out a B-52 is currently inoperable and using that information against them.