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What most people do not understand that like the B-50's the B-52's & C-135's have the ability to fold their tails, as they were designed to to so, remember when these planes were built the hangers didn't have large enough doors to accommodate the tall vertical fins, so Boeing designed to do this function. But with the passage of time, hanger doors are now large enough to allow this small airframe to enter without anything folding prior to being pulled inside or have the tail stick out of the closed doors.
This video brought back happy memories. I fondly remember being involved with the procedure for folding and erecting the vertical stabiliser during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The hangar we worked in, in the UK had a large central roof support structure. So although the hangar was wide enough to fit two aircraft side by side we had to fold the fin to get a second aircraft in the corner. We frequently performed this procedure on Boeing 720, 707-100 and 707-300 series aircraft. Great to see it still happening in 2020s 👍🏻
What’s the big deal? I’m assuming it’s removing the required access panels and fairings; ensuring that wires/cables/lines and anything protruding either has enough slack or room to move or is disconnected or removed; and then removing the mounting pins on one side and using the other side as a pivot (as long as they have axis that are aligned) and hooking up a lift or overhead crane with proper fittings to let it down and bring it back up. One question though. What’s the advantage? Normally you can re and re a rudder in situ without messing with the stabilizer at all.
Difference between military and civi. I worked for a company that worked on C-130s. No way the military could do it-most of them wouldn’t fly for years.
Ah, c'mon! 4 out of 5 wing-looking thingys are good enough. What happened to encounter, improvise & overcome? And just like any vehicle, a lower profile's harder for the enemy to see!
The 13 years I was in the ILANG (126th ARW) in the R&R shop, I saw the tail fin folded only once. Unfortunately I was not part of the lowering or raising of the fin. This was done by the full-timers during the week, however, it was a holy crap moment when I walked in the hanger for drill to see the tail folded down. It was done to fix a write-up not for replacing the fin. I remember being told that due to the age of the KC-135 the folding tail was to allow it to fit in smaller hangers. The 707 was America's first jet airliner.
Your comment about the folding fin facility, to allow the aircraft to fit into hangars is absolutely correct. When the 707 entered service its vertical stabiliser was considerably taller than that of any other airliner, such as the DC6, DC7, Lockheed Constellation, etc. The hangars then were quite low.
@@GeorgeMCMLIX Glad to I remembered it correctly. I left the service over 25 years ago. Our hangers had tail doors to accommodate the tail. The unit had KC-97s before they had the 135s.
Respect for those folks. But - I had several occasions to replace the Joint-2 gearbox on a custom long reach Fanuc 410i palletizing robot. The tech said the remaining assembly was around 1800 lbs. I had to free float the entire thing with a 12k forklift, some beam clamps/hoists, and the occasional help of one other dude. There were no hinges involved and 12 bolt holes had to line up before I could torques the thing down. Mind you, I didn't mention the 85lb gearbox. That was all solo, by hand, and slick with anti corrosion agents.
There's more to the guy that occasionally helped me with bolts and forklift though. He also convinced the boss that we didn't need Fanuc's $100/gal. synthetic grease. Which resulted in the 3rd $8k joint replacement. "Doesn't count cheap labor..."
Worked third shop when I was in the military a warrant officer came up to me and said the air purification in his loach helicopter would not work in the on full force position when I figured out what he meant I said I couldn't fix it, I was called into the captain later with him there him saying that I was not doing my job, I looked at him and said okay tell me what's wrong with it again he said it's not working on the on full force position, I said you mean the Off position, I replied I cant fix stupid.The only stupid person was me on KP and guard duty for the next month!
This video is at least 4 years old considering that everyone is wearing ABUs. The USAF only switched to OCPs in 2021 and it's likely that everyone would have been wearing OCPs by then.
"Honor to be chosen" My man they just grabbed whoever they thought wouldn't fuck it up. Does the military really tell guys its an "honor" to be chosen for stuff like this? How insulting. I helped reinstall a rudder the other day, boss just grabbed me and said they need a guy.
The Boeing Aircraft Company did this on most of its designs because SAC hangars when the B-29, B-50, B-47, and B-52 came on line originally did not have the “notch” for the vertical stabilizer. B-36 bombers had to be winched down in the tail or nose strut jacked up to get them in existing hangars. Weird bit of trivia. If you look at the large aircraft out at AMARG D-M you can see KC-135s with vertical stabilizers missing which have been used for replacements or parts on operational tankers.
It was a frequent occurrence, several times a year in the late 1979s and early 1980s, when I worked for a UK based MRO. We often had 2 707s side by side in a hangar with a low roof section, which required folding the fin on one of the aircraft.
