|
|
|
| Wednesday, August 08, 2007 |
|
Canadian Air Force signs off on C-17
By FlyingNews @ 4:56 PM :: 407 Views ::
0 Comments :: Military Aviation
|
 |
Lieutenant-Colonel Terry Wood of the C-17 Project Management Office at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa traveled to Long Beach, California last week to sign the official document stating Canada is satisfied and ready to accept its first C-17 Globemaster III. LCol Wood signed the document on Friday, August 3 at the Boeing plant. LCol Wood sends along these comments on why signing the "DD250" document is truly a "signature" moment for Canada.
"What I just signed is the United States Department of Defense form DD250, which is used for material inspection and receiving. As the Technical Authority for the Canadian C-17 contract with Boeing, I put my signature on this form signifying that Canada accepts that the completed aircraft meets its performance specification and all quality standards. This signature will trigger final payment for the aircraft - in essence, we've just bought our first C-17.
Although this is an important signature because of its significance for the Canadian Forces, I signed with confidence knowing all of the hard work that has gone into preparing for this moment.
Ensuring that quality standards have been met is no small undertaking on this complex aircraft. The C-17 has about nine million parts, only a million of which are rivets. I say "only" a million rivets, because this means that there are eight million other parts that are larger or more sophisticated than rivets! There are also about 200 kilometres of wiring in each aircraft.
Boeing has 6,500 employees directly involved in the design, manufacture and delivery of each C-17, with several thousand more personnel employed by the 700 direct suppliers to Boeing. To aid us in the large task of assessing the quality of our first aircraft, we delegated quality assurance representative responsibilities to the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) that is resident at Long Beach. This U.S. Department of Defense organization has 88 personnel and has inspected all United States Air Force (USAF), Royal Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force C-17s that were built before ours. They were meticulous in scouring over our aircraft and treated it just like one of their own.
The role of our own CF team, compromised of functional specialists from the Project Management Office, Aerospace Engineering and Test Establishment, 1 Canadian Air Division, the Directorate of Technical Airworthiness and 429 Squadron, was primarily one of oversight and ensuring that all CF regulatory requirements had been met.
Of course, the contractor (Boeing) has the largest role in ensuring that quality is built into the product in the first place. I think that most people would be surprised to see just how hard Boeing is on itself when it comes to C-17 quality. Boeing Long Beach employees are fiercely and justifiably proud of every aircraft they produce. Given the performance guarantees of our in-service support contract with Boeing, the company also has a strong incentive to ensure that quality issues do not arise that would keep this aircraft from flying!
It was a true team effort on behalf of the CF, USAF, DCMA, Public Works and Government Services Canada and Boeing that allowed the DD250 to be signed today, on schedule.
This is a great day for all Canadians. The C-17 provides us with a truly impressive and versatile capability to respond to domestic disasters and international humanitarian crises, and to support Task Force Afghanistan."
Source: Department of National Defence |
|
|
|
|
| Comments |
Currently, there are no comments. Be the first to post one!
You must be logged in to post a comment. You can login here
|
|
|