Evening star., 1948-12-17
Air|ih Base Reduces
C-4 Cleaning Time
From 48 10 4Hours
By james R. Patterson

WARRINGTON, England, Dec. II.
About the most important man In
England these days is a big, blond
Lithuanian with the voice of a steam
ealliope. He is Capt. Charles j.
Gustof, who calls San Antonio, Tex,
home but who currently is presiding
over hangar No. / at the Burton
wood Air Force Base here.
Capt. Gustof figures In world af-
fairs In q manner similar to the
horseshoe in the nursery rhyme that
cost battle. The big captain is the
key man In the Burtonwood base,
the Burtonwood base Is the key
operation In the Berlin airlift, and
the Berlin airlift Is the key project
Ia Americas policy in Europe.
Hence, the importance Of Capt.
Gustof.
To explain first about the Burton
wood base and then about the cap
able captain-this American depot
now Is doing the major maintenance
Job for Operation Vittles. The C-54
skymasters hauling fuel and food
into the blockaded German capital
are sent here after every 200 hours
IN the air to be thoroughly inspected
and overhauled.
Covers $1,000 Acres.
As recently as the middle of Oc-
tober, the huge field here that
spreads out over $1,000 acres about
10 miles east of Liverpool, was
operated by the Royal Air Force as
Q depot. When the airlift main
tenance problem and other factors
necessitated opening an American
base In England, Maj. Gen. Fred S.
Borum. who had been running the
air material command depot at
Tinker Field in Oklahoma City, was
ordered to collect his staff and get
things rolling at Burtonwood.
The coal dust gets all over the
inside and the outside Of the ship"
Gen. Borum says. Before we can
begin the inspection and overhaul,
It Is necessary to get 1t clean. Clean
ing the aircraft became the biggest
bottleneck IN our whole mainten-
ance program"
scrubbing down one of the big
four -engined transports normally is
Q two-day job at the Oklahoma City
depot, and then the airplanes come
into the hangers many times
cleaner than the airlift coal ships.
The normal procedure was to get
buckets, brushes and ladders, but
such o system could not be used
where time was the most important
factor"
Scaffolding Was Built.
To attack the problem, one of
the airplanes was rolled into the
hangar and scaffolding was built
around it so workmen could walk
along platforms instead of using
ladders to wash the wings.
Boilers were installed to generate
steam, and tanks containing clean
ing solution of kerosene and soap
were built. Hoses then were used
10 spray q Aim of fluid over the
ship, and English civilian workmen
scrubbed the surfaces down with
brushes. They got the operation
down i've hours. i
Gen. Borum. who spends lot of
his time IN Hangar No. /, says new
ref1nements have cut the cleaning
job almost to four hours, but they
are still working to make 1t even
shorter. Capt. Gustof Is training his
men In more efficient operation. You
zee him grab q steam hose from
workman, thrust it into an engine
nacelle while he bellows a torrent
OF instructions how the Job should
be done.
While all Of this work on the ex-
terror of the transport is being
performed, other men inside the
ship are going over it with vacuum
sweepers. The hangar has dual IA
cilities, 50 that two Skymasters, nose
TO nose, cam be towed into the
building and washed at the same
time.
Inspection Cut to IS Hours.
The periodic 200-hour inspections
Il the Skymasters normally require !
100 man hours and take from a
week to 10 days to complete. The
Burtonwood base completes the job |
now In about IS hours. Work goes
"a 18 hours day, seven days
week.
We are training . third shift,
COL jackson explains. When we
are able to 60 on q 'round-the- clock
basis with three shifts we will get
the time down to 4s hours and
maybe less.
"Our present production rate av-
srages about four airplanes q day.
but when we get on q 24-hour
schedule we will be turning out
eight to nine ships a day"
Every operation is being timed
carefully to discover where addi-
tional minutes can be saved. The
various crews compete against each
other, and where one crew performs
the Job quicker than another its
methods are adopted by the other
crews.
There are between 5000 and 1000
AIR Force men stationed here and
almost every boat to Liverpool
brings in few hundred more. Jeeps,
bulldozers, 6x6 trucks, weapons car
rsrs. bomb loading trucks, trailers
and hdISeS All acres of pa rkinp enar