KC-46 deliveries paused

[Zaphod58]

The Air Force paused deliveries of KC-46s in March, after inspection of an aircraft revealed a broken gimbal nut lockwire. The gimbal allows the boom to move on all axis, and the gimbal nut locks the boom onto the gimbal.  It's locked in place with safety wire to keep it from moving during flight.  A broken lock wire would prevent that extra margin of safety, and potentially allow the nut to back off, until it came off the gimbal, allowing the boom to separate from the aircraft.  The Air Force performed inspections of all delivered aircraft, and aircraft in production. Deliveries are expected to resume soon, with two aircraft undergoing final inspection, and expected to be delivered within the next week.

WASHINGTON — The US Air Force has not accepted any new KC-46A Pegasus air refueling tankers from Boeing since March due to an issue with a broken part on the aircraft’s boom, though the service expects to accept two new aircraft by the end of the month, an Air Force spokesperson said in a statement.
“There was a brief pause in KC-46 deliveries starting in March 2024 after a fleet inspection revealed a broken boom gimbal nut lockwire. The gimbal is the ‘swivel joint’ that provides boom movement in all 3 axes and the gimbal nut secures the boom to the gimbal,” the spokesperson said.
“Deliveries were paused while production and fielded aircraft completed inspections to ensure continued safety of the fleet and receivers,” they added. “The DAF [Department of the Air Force] completed all aircraft inspections and resumed the aircraft acceptance process; two aircraft are undergoing final inspection stages and are expected to deliver by 31 May 24.

https://breakingdefense.com/2024/05/boei...sume-soon/

[Tecate]

Wow! It really does look like quality control has spiraled into the ground. (Damn that was a bad, unintended pun).

Is it just $? Laziness, or is there something more sinister at play? ( this is a CT) site after all…

Tecate

[Zaphod58]

It was most likely an in service aircraft, meaning this could be something that happened on a mission, or during a previous inspection and wasn’t reported.

[Tecate]

Or could it simply have been missed?

I realize that I have no experience with aircraft, but extensive experience with ambulances as a practitioner, a supervisor, and then general manager of an ambulance service with a fleet of 23 units.

After crews had done their daily checks and weekly deep cleaning checks I always found that something was missed.

Possibly complacency due to routine?

It can be unnerving, especially on an aircraft I would imagine.

Tecate

[Zaphod58]

It’s possible. The area this was found in is also only inspected during a phase inspection, or higher. So it’s not something that’s looked at a lot. It may have with something on the boom and was only caught on an inspection for something else.