An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Wires, sensors, dials; E&E keeps aircraft in flight

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt Alexandra M. Boutte
  • 509th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. --  Within every U.S. Air Force aircraft there are miles of wire, thousands of sensors and hundreds of dials, switches and indicators.

The electrical and environmental systems (E&E) specialists know each and every one of them, but more importantly they know how to repair them if they malfunction.
"We are like any other maintenance career field," said Senior Airman Colby Nash, 509th Maintenance Squadron E&E systems technician.

The electrical portion of the shop deals with every aspect of the aircraft's electrical system, from power generation to interior and exterior lighting and even fire prevention and suppression. The environmental aspect focuses on the pilots' climate control system inside the cockpit, weapons system cooling, cabin pressurization and oxygen generation.

"If we weren't here, the B-2 (Spirit) wouldn't be able to fly, nor could the aircrew survive the flight if it did," Nash said. 

Members of the shop also assist fuels, engines, hydraulics and the crew chiefs with various troubleshooting and repairs. 

"On top of our aircraft maintenance we also perform various inspections on liquid and gaseous oxygen and nitrogen carts, as well as support equipment for other shops within our squadron," Nash said.

With maintenance shops, parts availability is an obstacle to overcome in order to get a job done in a timely manner. The E&E shop recently had such an issue; an incident of multiple broken transformer rectifiers almost brought the shop and other maintenance personnel to a screeching halt.

"The parts were designed to be maintenance free, but as with anything, 20 years is a long service life," Nash said. "And needless to say, 20-year-old parts aren't easy to refurbish." 

On the B-2, systems require two different types of electricity: either alternating current or direct current. Transformer rectifiers solve this problem by taking AC power from the generators and turning it into DC power for other subsystems.

It took new innovation and clearing some big hurdles in order to put the transformer rectifiers back into working condition. This process required the shop to devise substitutions for unobtainable equipment required to perform the checks, as well as coordinate with engineers to approve their new procedures.

"Without working hand-in-hand with supply and the engineers to supplement a means to power and cool the units while we test them, we wouldn't have been able to put the TR units back into supply in a serviceable condition," said Tech Sgt. Shawn Bloom, 509th MXS E&E systems craftsman.

This team effort is a characteristic of how the Air Force mission gets accomplished day in and day out.

Each time an aircraft flies, it is the result of shops like E&E working hard to make it happen.