Scott agencies join to test new airframe

Published June 17, 2010
By Bekah Clark
375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- It was a team effort June 8 and 9 to gather more than 20 Airmen from across Scott Air Force Base on the Scott flightline to continue production qualification testing on one of the Air Force's newest airframes: the C-27J Spartan.

The C-27J was originally an Army development program until April 2009 when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates shifted the program to the Air Force. As such, Air Force-specific procedures for how to operate the aircraft must be created, which is where these tests came in.

The C-27J boasts shorter landing and takeoff capabilities which allows the airframe to fly into austere areas that do not have the necessary infrastructure to handle the Air Force's larger aircraft. The airframe will significantly enhance the Air Force's capabilities to evacuate wounded servicemembers out of dangerous environments.

It was these aeromedical evacuation capabilities that were tested at Scott last week - namely the capability to quickly and safely evacuate ambulatory and littered patients in the event of an emergency.

During the tests, AE personnel performed timed evacuations of all patients and aircrew through all doors, including one of the emergency escape hatches on the top of the airframe.

The tests, monitored by evaluators from AMC's Test and Evaluation Squadron at McGuire Air Force Base and personnel from Air Force Materiel Command, were a precursor to the Multi-Service Operational Test and Evaluation which will take place later this summer. The MOT&E determines the capabilities of the airframe in an operational environment.
"We gathered data so aeromedical evacuation training regulations and operating instructions for the aircraft can be written," said Master Sgt. Michael Baker, a test director from the AMC Test and Evaluation Squadron at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.

Once the results of the observation have been recorded, "those publications will be standardized for use by aeromedical evacuation crews Air Force-wide, when they evacuate patients on the C-27J," he said.

According to John Rehkop, a member of the AMC Test and Evaluation office, an electromagnetic interference evaluation of the AE equipment was also performed to ensure its operation does not interfere with any aircraft equipment.

"At the conclusion of this effort the Army will determine if the system is airworthy in preparation for the MOT&E," he said. During the MOT&E, operational AE aircrew will configure the aircraft for an AE mission and fly it in an operationally realistic environment.
Though this testing went late into the night June 8, the long day was well worth it, said Capt. John Camacho, a 375th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron flight nurse instructor and test participant.

"It was a lot of work, but at the end of the day, it's an important effort to help make sure that our wounded warriors get the help they need when they need it and bring them back home," he said.

This is the second time Team Scott personnel have assisted in tests for the C-27J.
In late February, AE technicians from Air Mobility Command and the 375th Air Mobility Wing took AE equipment and went through several patient-carrying configurations on the aircraft. This was done to optimize patient-carrying capability of the aircraft to accommodate all levels of patients from ambulatory to critical care.

Four configurations of passenger seating and litters were developed as a result of these tests.

The airframe's shorter landing and takeoff capabilities will also enable supplies to be delivered closer to their destination point, saving lives of warfighters by reducing the need for ground convoys in dangerous areas.

Team Scott test participants included members of AMC's Air, Space and Information Operations Directorate and Test and Evaluation office, the 375th AES, the 375th Force Support Squadron, the 375th Communications Support Squadron, and the 932nd AES. The C-27J Joint Program Office from Huntsville, Ala. and the 516th Aeronautical Systems Group from Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio were also on hand to evaluate and monitor the test.