The KC cometh

“As the lead customer, Australia is taking on a considerable risk with this new capability, but it is a risk that is being carefully managed by a range of strategies and controls,” outgoing Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Geoff Shepherd told the induction ceremony.

“This is a particularly important project on a range of levels, a lot is riding on it and a lot depends on it, so we all need to deliver the goods. That said, I appreciate the project is a first-of-type, is complex, and not without its technical challenges. And although the capability is built on the foundation of a proven commercial aircraft platform, the modification of the aircraft, the development and integration of the refuelling boom and the military software brings . . . its own set of challenges. ” Those challenges still ahead of the program, particularly the testing and validation of the KC-30’s key military avionics systems, “clearly has the potential to cause delays,” Air Commodore Steve Drury, the director general of airlift and training systems within the Defence Materiel Organisation, highlighted during the ceremony.

What the DMO and RAAF are watching closely is the Phase 2 modification work now under way on the first aircraft in Spain, including fitting critical items such as wiring harnesses, avionics racks and boxes, the boom operator console, and the DIRCM infrared countermeasures system and EW suite. That work is now taking place after the flight test program validated the Phase 1 conversion work which involved the major structural mods to the aircraft such as fitting the boom, pods and receiver receptacle – anything that could affect the physical handling of the aircraft.

“I appreciate EADS CASA committing the appropriate resources to this difficult and crucially important phase to ensure we stay on schedule,” AIRCDRE Drury continued.

“As the lead customer on this first-of-type developmental capability, we are focused on risks, particularly on design maturity. ” All going well with Phase 2 modifications to the prototype in Spain, conversion work on the second aircraft in Australia should proceed fairly smoothly, with that aircraft to be handed over to the RAAF next March.

“Today we embark on the important milestone of transferring the conversion activities to Australia, which has its own set of risks,” AIRCDRE Drury said. “However, I am confident that EADS CASA and Qantas have been able to learn from the first aircraft modification to date, and through that have identified and developed strategies to mitigate known risks. ” Where the risk lies with the first Australian conversion is with any delays to the Phase 2 work in Spain, as theQantas converted KC-30s will be modified in a single ongoing process.

“We’re doing it all together so that brings a whole bunch of new challenges where you’ve got people working around one another as distinct from working quite separately,” Qantas Engineering group general manager John Vincent told Australian Aviation after the induction ceremony. “So we will be working closely with EADS to get that right. ” “Anything that involves a physical installation that would affect the performance or the handling characteristics of the aircraft, that was done in Phase 1,” Vincent explained. “The second phase sees all that (hardware and systems) hooked up, sees all the systems functionality testing happening. ” So should there be delays to Phase 2 work in Spain, that will have flow on effects to the conversion work in Australia.

“It’s a two-and-a-half to three year program,” said Vincent. “The timing just depends a little bit on the prototype, because as the Chief of Air Force said that first prototype is due out early next year, and he reflected pretty strongly on the fact there are still risks and issues associated with the program. Obviously we can’t complete this aircraft until the prototype’s finished, so there’s a little bit of flexibility, or a little bit of movement there. So at best it’s a two-and-a-half year program from today, and if it extends it could go to three years. ” While Phase 2 work continues in Spain, Qantas won’t be idle in working on the first aircraft.

“Initially we can start physical work on the aircraft – sureing, jacking, cutting – we’ve also got a lot of assembly to do of the parts, so the UASI probe receptacle at the front, that’s got to be assembled in the workshop,” Vincent said. “There’s some work to do on the drogue pods, that sort of thing. So there’s a fair bit of work we can do in the workshop . . .

and then progressively get to the point where we’ll wheel the completed subassemblies out of the workshops, pop them up to the aircraft and hopefully by then we’ll see some of the Phase 2 stuff coming through and incorporate those. ” The 100 Qantas Engineering staff performing the conversion work in Brisbane will be supported by a team of 11 from EADS providing technical support, including production specialists and stress and systems analysts who will rotate between Brisbane and Madrid as necessary. As lead contractor on the program EADS CASA is responsible for certifying the completed aircraft before it is delivered to the RAAF.

The RAAF will also have its own team on site at Brisbane. “They’ll be making sure we’re doing what we said we were going to do and liaising with us and the EADS CASA team, making sure that any variations are identified and properly captured and documented so that when the job is finished, not only do they physically get the aircraft, they get all the data and the documentation and everything that goes with it and it’s all consistent,” Vincent said.

There is a lot to validate.

The conversion sees more than 2000 structural parts and 5500 systems parts added or modified, and the installation of more than 400 new wiring harnesses totalling more than 58km.

The success of a major conversion project like this depends on having “good people and you have to have all the appropriate skills,” said Vincent of Qantas Engineering’s expertise for a complex project like the KC‑30 mod. “The other component is you’ve got to have the systems and the processes and the project management skills. You’ve got to do the design, the drawings, the job cards (1000 in all) are really critical, you’ve got to have the parts and you’ve got to have the project management capability to put all that in place. ” The work is being done in a former Ansett hangar Qantas acquired and most recently used for QantasLink Dash 8 maintenance before converting it for the KC-30 modification program.