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Aerospace Careers: Machine Shop
 | | X-38 pylon and shop crew |
Modifying an aircraft for a research project involves the
activities of many people at Dryden, and high on the list of
this team are the highly experienced specialists at the
Machine Shop.
The official title of each machine shop member is Model Maker, but the
description belies their real role.
They are specialized engineering technicians who provide Dryden with a
complete aircraft modification capability
by producing hardware.....one-of-a-kind machined parts....that help modify
an aircraft to carry out a specific
research role. This capability is critical because modification work
rarely uses components "off the shelf."
Most are custom made for specific research projects.
The items made in the Machine Shop run the gamut, from tiny microswitch
mechanisms
to hefty pylons that carry research vehicles and test articles beneath
the wing
of NASA's B-52 carrier aircraft, and parts in between like air data probes,
custom aircraft load-bearing members, and jet engine mounts.
Shop Specialists
 | | Microswitch |
The capability of the Dryden Machine Shop is unique, compared to most
industrial shops of its size. All
seven of the shop specialists are experts at operating every one of the 40
machines on hand, from common
bench grinders to the large computerized milling machines and lathes. The
specialists work with engineers in
designing the product, and can make any item that the machines are capable
of producing.
Machine shop tasks arrive in the form of a standard work request,
normally originated by a project engineer
and coordinated through the maintenance branch. Working from simple
descriptions or sketches all the way up
to engineering drawings accompanying the work request, personnel at the
machine shop stay with the item
until it's completed and can be handed over to the customer.
While the largest percentage of the work performed in the machine shop
supports the Aircraft Maintenance
and Modification Branch, other organizations at Dryden also utilize its
talent when unique parts for vehicles,
support equipment, or utility systems are needed.
Machines and Materials
The machinists work with many types of materials. Most of it is
aluminum, the basic metal used in
aircraft structures and available in a variety of alloys based on strength.
Other materials commonly used in
aircraft modification work are titanium, another lightweight metal but one
that resists heat; stainless steel; and
chromium-molybdenum steel.
The largest milling machine in the facility can handle a piece of steel
or aluminum that is 60 inches long,
30 inches wide, and 24 inches thick.
One of the most interesting machines in the shop is the Electrical
Discharge Machine (EDM). It looks like
a massive bandsaw. Instead of a saw blade, the computerized machine uses a
wire carrying an electrical
current to cut any material that will conduct electricity. The electrical
discharge burns the metal to make a smooth
clean cut while the computerized machine guides the wire automatically,
without the aid of a human operator.
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Electrical Discharge Machine
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EDM cut in progress
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Unique Projects
Products coming out of the Dryden Machine Shop, over a period of time,
have supported every aircraft flown
at the center.
The largest pieces of machined steel produced by the Dryden shop were
used on the Convair (CV)-990
Landing Systems Research Aircraft, a former jetliner used to test space
shuttle tires. The assembled pieces were
installed in the belly of the CV-990 and became a massive support structure
which held a landing gear retraction
system. The structure was engineered and built to withstand up to 200,000
pounds of pressure to simulate space
shuttle landing loads. The CV-990 project was the largest aircraft
modification job performed at Dryden. Its success
led to broader landing capabilities for space shuttles at the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida.
A highly modified F-18 called the High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) was
flown at Dryden with
thrust-vectored engine exhaust to help achieve sustained high angles of
attack (alpha) while engineers studied the
flow of air over the aircraft at the high pitch angles. The Dryden Machine
Shop created the functional model of
the thrust vectoring exhaust nozzles. The nozzles were mounted on a
non-flying F-18 dubbed the "Iron Bird"
that was used to test and validate engineering software ultimately used in
the HARV.
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CV-990 aircraft
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F-18 HARV aircraft
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When the X-29 forward swept wing research aircraft was flown to study
high angle of attack flight
characteristics, smoke was released from tiny orifices around the nose of
the aircraft to plot the flow of air. The
smoke generator was fabricated in the machine shop.
Machine Shop personnel were also involved with the NASA F-16XL laminar
flow research aircraft.
The aircraft's highly modified left wing carries a large titanium panel
designed to create smoother air flow over
the wing's upper surface to enhance performance. The project is being
carried out by NASA to see if
similar laminar flow devices would be feasible on future commercial
transports to help lower operating costs.
To support the big titanium panel and added hardware inside the wing,
components to strengthen wing ribs
and spars were made by the Machine Shop.
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X-29 aircraft
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F-16XL aircraft
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Experience
Personnel working in machine shops can receive their training and
experience from a variety of sources
military service, trade schools, industrial schooling, and on-the-job
training at commercial machine shops.
NASA's machinists of today need to have skills far beyond an
understanding of the machine tools they
operate on a daily basis. They must be knowledgeable in all types of
metals and other materials common to
aircraft construction, be skilled in mathematics and trigonometry, and take
an idea and transform it into a
functional system. This involves analyzing a problem or situation and
coming up with a workable solution.
Aerospace engineering technicians must not only be skilled with modern
computer-operated machines,
they also must be able to use computer-aided packages to design parts, put
this information into a language
the machine tool understands, set the machines up, and then manufacture the
parts.
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| Computer version of X-33 wind tunnel model
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X-33 wind tunnel model being fabricated out of solid aluminum by
a four axis machining center
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Document Number: IS-97/08-DFRC-03
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