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Propulsion flight: keeping Falcons in the fight

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Christopher Maldonado
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  Soaring through the sky at speeds exceeding Mach 2 the F-16CM Fighting Falcons and the many Airmen who maintain them bring the driving force needed to complete the mission at a moment’s notice. The F-16 is simply a shell however, without an engine powerful enough to propel it to new heights.

Airmen assigned to the 20th Component Maintenance Squadron propulsion flight work diligently to ensure that those engines are ready to unleash the power required to put the F-16s assigned to Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, in the air.

“Responsible for over 100 engines, including F-110 and F-129B’s, this group of Airmen work around the clock to help maintain the engines of the 79 aircraft on base,” said Staff Sgt. Casey Randolph, 20th CMS propulsion flight dock chief.

The propulsion flight consists of sections in which 74 Airmen assigned to the 20th CMS are in charge of maintaining and repairing specific parts of the engine.
Each section of the shop is responsible for ensuring that an F-16’s single point of propulsion is safe for mounting onto the aircraft.

The sections include jet engine intermediate maintenance, accessories, support, engine test, and programs.

“It’s like a symphony happening,” said Jeffrey Jamshed, 20th CMS aerospace propulsion journeyman. “Everything has to be working together to be able to push out an end product.”

Every section of the flight coordinates with each other to guarantee the quality of the engine.

“It takes a lot of attention to detail and skill to ensure that these engines are suitable for flight,” said Jamshed.

When propulsion shop Airmen are building an engine, calculations are not allowed to be more than 1/1000 of an inch off.

They avoid potential mistakes by closely following each part of a technical order. TOs are part of the inspection process that checks each engine component and ensures the safety of the mission, by providing a list of check procedures for a piece of equipment.

“We are trying to push out these engines as fast as we can, but at the same time you will never sacrifice the quality of the product.” Said Jamshed. “Never.”

At the end of the process, propulsion flight Airmen send every serviceable engine out to the flightline for installation into an F-16 needing a boost.

Each engine enables the F-16 to reach heights of 50,000 feet and speeds of up to 1,500 mile per hours, packing the power needed for pilots to accomplish the mission anytime, anywhere.