A (New) Wing and a Prayer

New wings are the answer to U.S. Air Force concerns on the aging A-10 Thunderbolt II, a tactical aircraft flying since 1975. Air Force officials awarded a contract to Boeing last year for 242 new A-10 wings constructed and delivered to depots for installment on existing Warthogs by 2011. Not all 356 of the...

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New wings are the answer to U.S. Air Force concerns on the aging A-10 Thunderbolt II, a tactical aircraft flying since 1975.

Air Force officials awarded a contract to Boeing last year for 242 new A-10 wings constructed and delivered to depots for installment on existing Warthogs by 2011.

Not all 356 of the Air Force's A-10s require new wings because more than 100 airframes were constructed in the 1980s with thicker skin. Those aircraft are rated for 16,000 flying hours, which is estimated to keep them airworthy sometime into 2030. The original thin-skinned A-10s were designed for 8,000 hours and were extended beyond that in the 1990s with depot repairs.

Based on the rate flying hours accumulate, the extension is expected to expire in 2011, which is when the new wings are scheduled to be installed. The new wings will extend the older A-10s to 16,000 hours, keeping them flying until about 2030.

Replacing the wings saves the Air Force "a great deal of money over a long period of time," said USAF Lt. Col. Ralph Hansen, Air Combat Command A-10 program element monitor. The value of the Boeing contract is more than $1 billion between 2007 and 2018. Hansen said that equates to about $4 million per aircraft, a price far below what it would cost to recapitalize the A-10. "You can't buy a business jet for that price," he said.

Maintaining the old wings would require repeated removal, inspection and installation of beef-up straps at A-10 depots. Continuing to repairing old wings, as opposed to replacing them, would cost approximately $1.3 billion more than the Boeing contract.

The A-10 was designed and produced by Fairchild Republic, which discontinued aircraft production in 1984, creating complications in reproduction of the wings because there are limited engineer drawings.

For this reason Boeing engineers have developed a three-phase process for the contract, said Jennifer Hogan, Boeing spokeswoman. The first phase is in progress now. It involves modeling the wing and scanning it to duplicate the 3-D model of existing wings. Hansen said the new wing will be no different from the current wings and will be transparent to pilots and maintainers. The one exception is "incorporation of reliability, maintainability and (production) improvements learned over the years," said Hogan.

The second phase is manufacture and assembly, and the third phase, set for 2011, is full-rate production and installation on the aircraft.

The sturdy airframe design enables the A-10 to operate from austere airfields and take battle damage without degrading capability. Examples of its survivability include self- sealing fuel cells protected by foam, manual flight control systems that back up hydraulic controls, armor and a ballistic tub surrounding the cockpit.

"I've seen A-10s with very large holes in them that have survived just fine," said Hansen.