Last Updated April 30, 2024
Fairmount Tech (FT) successfully demonstrated XtruJog's joggling capabilities for modernized Aircraft Battle Damage Repair (ABDR) scenarios next to a non-flying KC-135 testbed, nicknamed STRATO-T. XtruJog was selected for demonstration of its capabilities for expeditionary repair of structural components such as spars and ribs, and manufacturing of metal parts at the point of need, in remote and potentially comms denied environments.
While providing live joggling demonstrations on-site, XJ's team was able to participate in several real time Q&A sessions with multiple USAF ABDR units and gain valuable feedback from our warfighters and military civilians, as well as subject matter experts from within NCMS. FT learned that ABDR units take different extrusions and sheet metal starting stock with them when they fly out, to fix aircraft where they're deployed. ABDR personnel cut out damaged structural parts that need to be replaced, choose an appropriate size stock, and then snip and fold it into the curve required for it to serve as a replacement. This part then gets riveted to doublers to provide structural integrity. This is highly skilled, time-consuming, and stressful work under difficult operating conditions. Even after the aircraft is back at a repair site, ABDR personnel often need to cannibalize parts from other aircraft and sometimes go to great lengths to even splice extended sections from one aircraft to another because it is hard to make one-off spares for a series of stations.
This customer pain became clear to us during the event and pushed us to try to provide proof-of-concept of some long-term plans for XtruJog that would significantly simplify their work. While at STRATO-Tech, we worked to make slight modifications to the machine and were able to successfully demonstrate on all three different sized extrusions that we tried, which were also made of three different materials, namely, 6061-T6, 2024-T8511 and 7075-T6. This prompted ABDR personnel to take our XJ team to the KC-135 testbed and show us the series of parts needed to repair the damaged area near the forward landing gear of one aircraft they are currently fixing. It was determined that XJ was likely capable of meeting this need. ABDR personnel will be scheduling a follow-up visit to our facility to discuss next steps towards realizing the potential promise of this technology, as well as to review the applicability of our other CNC machines, XtruForm for forming extrusions, and XtruMach for milling extrusions.
The USAF, WSU's National Institute for Aviation Research, and the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences co-hosted the inaugural event in Wichita, KS, April 22-26, 2024. STRATO-Tech is considered the aircraft equivalent to REPTX, a technology demonstration event that NCMS and the Navy co-host.
For more information about the STRATO-Tech event, visit
Additional STRATO-Tech article found at
DVIDS - News - AMC’s New STRATO-gy: Industry Partnerships Advance KC-135 Maintenance Technology (dvidshub.net)
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