AEDC machinists create B-52 in Model Shop

  • Published
  • By Patrick Ary &Shawn Jacobs
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  R.D. Green sits in a chair, patiently filing away tooling marks where an engine pod has been joined to an airplane wing.

The area he's buffing out is about the size of a quarter - on a seven-foot long piece of metal. Nearby, fellow Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA) machinist Derrick Burton is putting the finishing touches on another wing's engine pod. All around them are other huge chunks of metal that have been fabricated to complete their masterpiece: a fuselage on a cart, segments of the plane's body and the mount that will hold it in place in Arnold Engineering Development Center's (AEDC) Propulsion Wind Tunnel 16T.

"Everybody who's had something to do with it has done some polishing at some time," Green said.

When you compare the size of the pieces around him to the surface area Green is polishing, you get an idea of how much work has gone into creating the B-52 model scheduled for testing in 16T. It started as giant blocks of aluminum and stainless steel that have been honed into a scale version of the plane that is precise down to the final touches.

Green has worked as a machinist at AEDC for 39 years and worked on several models, but this is the first time a model of this size has ever come through the Model Shop. When the team first received word of the project, it was nothing more than a drawing on a piece of paper. Then they were told the model would only have about 14 inches of clearance on either side in the 16-foot wind tunnel. Green said the size of what they were being asked to build took everyone by surprise.

"I had never thought about doing something like this," Green said. "It's an interesting job."

They found out late last year about the job. Now, after 58 hours of work each week, the end result is in sight.

Green worked on the real B-52 when he was an Airman from 1968-1972. He was a machinist then as well and made parts for the real thing, saying he worked "all the way from the top of the tail to the nose and everything in between."

Now he's actually building one, albeit a smaller version that will never take to the air on its own. Even so, it's work that requires a skilled hand and the ability to see airplane parts in a block of aluminum.

"You have to visualize what you're working on and contemplate what you're doing next," he said. "Everybody's done a wonderful job on this thing. There's a lot of talent out here."

Burton, who's been at AEDC for eight years, said he has enjoyed the time he's spent on the model.

"I mainly worked on the nose section, tail section and the mid-body pieces," he said "That's some 30-odd parts. I enjoy this type of work. It's interesting to see something come together."

Burton said he was also looking forward to being involved in assembling the huge model, which is the next step.

"[There is] a lot of pride involved," he said. "You know you can see how long it takes just to do a little hand work, and you're talking about a massive model here. We've got a bunch of good guys down here in the machine shop. One way or another, probably 85 percent have [worked on the B-52 model]."

Like some others in the Model Shop, Burton was surprised to be building a model of a legacy aircraft like the B-52.

"I wondered, since it was so old, and I really didn't know how many were still in use," he said. "I've come to find out that there are several still in use."

Even with the deadline moved up from September to July, Green said everyone kept a level head about the amount of work that had to be done.

"We create our own pressure," Green said. "We're self-motivated. We all know the pressure's there."