Volume 69, Number 2
Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland
News Briefs Munitions Response Site Prioritization
The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Washington, is setting priorities for investigating a number of munitions sites on NAS Patuxent River andWebster Field, as well as former water ranges in the Patuxent River and Chesapeake Bay that were associated with NAS Patuxent River and NRC Solomons. For questions about the munitions response or environmental cleanup programs at NAS Patuxent River, please contact Gary Younger, Public Affairs Officer at 301-757-6478 or gary.younger@navy.mil.
Webster Field Pass Office Temporarily Closed
OLF Webster Field pass office is closed until further notice due to NMCI cable being severed. All passes will need to be obtained at NAS Pax River pass offices until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this disruption of service and will provide updates as soon as they become available.
New Archives Facility Opens
The National Air and Space Museum has opened the new Archives reading room at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center to the public.There, researchers may access more than 2 million technical drawings, 1,600 cubic feet of technical manuals, over 2 million photographs and 700,000 feet of motion picture film chronicling the history of aviation and spaceflight, as well as sound recordings, personal papers and more. For information, contact larai@si.edu or mullenb@si.edu
See News Briefs, Page 8
CFC update: Pax Pros did it again! The 2011 Combined Federal Campaign was a huge success.The total collection for 2011 was $602,172.That's $75,172 more than last year's total of $527K. Thanks so much for a job well done!
January 12, 2012
V-22 team gets award for engine improvements By Renee Hatcher V-22 Public Affairs The V-22 Propulsion and Power Integrated Product Team received a Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division Commander's Award for improving engine time-onwing and reducing costs during a ceremony here Dec. 7. The V-22 Propulsion and Power IPT formed the AE1107 Measured Gas Temperature IncreaseTeam in response to an urgent need to improve V-22 engine timeon-wing and reduce engine total ownership costs. The team evaluated raising the MGT limit of the AE1107 engine, allowing more deterioration margin. The team developed, qualified, tested and fielded upgraded engines for an initial field service evaluation in about half the time as originally expected. "The technical and logistical analysis required was extensive and the sevenmonth timeframe from concept development to fielding was a significant achievement for a design change of this nature," said Col. Greg Masiello, manager of theV-22 Joint Program, also known as PMA-275. The MGTI team formed in January 2011 and completed an initial feasibility study that was favorable but had a 14-month development schedule. Urgent needs of
the V-22 user community challenged the team to condense the schedule from 14 to six months. The team met this challenge by developing a critical path schedule, clearly evaluating and articulating engineering data requirements, and using processes that allowed many technical analysis tasks to be conducted in parallel. Program officials approved the fully qualified MGT limit modification on Aug. 2, released the interim flight clearance on Aug. 5, and incorporated the MGT limit increase on 27 operational aircraft by the end of August. The team projects that the AE1107 MGT increase will provide an 80 percent increase in average engine time-on-wing and, assuming success of the field service evaluation and fleet wide implementation, will avoid about 200 engine removals over the next five years. "Exceptional teamwork was required to complete the MGTI effort within the compressed schedule," Masiello said. "Not only was it completed in less than half the normal time, but it was accomplished while fully maintaining technical, logistic and programmatic rigor." The NAWCAD Commander's Award acknowledges
See V-22, Page 8
Photo by Adam Skoczylas
Ron Hicks accepts a NAWCAD Commander's Award from NAWCAD Executive Director and NAVAIR Deputy Assistant Commander for T&E Gary Kessler, front left, NAWCAD Commander Rear Adm. Randy Mahr, right, and NAWCAD Vice Commander Capt. David Gleisner. Members of the winning team who attended the ceremony include Marie Williams, Troy Farris, Matthew Bishop, Ryan Schlomer, Allen Weintraub, Mike Dempsey, Dave Barry, Ron Lash, Roger Counts, Mark Fondren, Steven Mason, Dave Castellano and Bill Grantham.
IAs celebrates BAMS-D anniversary, from first flight to current operations By Jamie Cosgrove Program Executive Office Unmanned Aviation & Strike Weapons Public Affairs
U.S. Navy photo
BAMS-D arrives in CENTCOM AOR in January 2009. From left, BAMS-D team members Chief Craig Bell, Col. Tom Murphy and Lt. Cmdr. Tom McLellan are pictured in front of the unmanned aircraft.
"We started from ground zero. Everything was new for us three years ago," said Lt. Cmdr. John McLellan. McLellan, an individual augmentee supporting Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Demonstrator operations in Central Command area of responsibility, was part of the original team that established BAMS-D's forward operating base in 2008, and witnessed its first flight during initial deployment in January 2009.This month, he commemorates the system's third year of op-
erations. Under the direction of Commander, Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing Five, based in Brunswick, Maine, McLellan and another squadron member stood up the BAMS-D site, with support from Northrop Grumman. The government-industry team operated the unmanned aircraft's first flight less than a month after deploying. Beyond the challenge of fielding a new system, the small detachment faced other obstacles. It operated from a remote location, had limited logistics support and shared the forward operating base with Air Force personnel overseeing the Global Hawk unmanned air vehicle. "Initially, we experienced some
growing pains," said McLellan, who volunteered for the deployment. "Our operating procedures differed from the Air Force, but we were able to work through issues and their support has been phenomenal." After his challenging, eightmonth deployment, McLellan returned to Brunswick and completed his tour with CPRW-5. He then transitioned to Pax River to serve as the BAMS Unmanned Aircraft System assistant program manager for Logistics. "My experiences supporting BAMS-D were directly applicable to the BAMS program," McLellan said. "The joint synergy efforts with the
See IA, Page 2