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My first business was washing airplanes out at the local airport, I was 12 years old, and I was always trying to find a way to clean the airplanes using less labor, and to do the job faster. Such is probably always on the mind of a young entrepreneurs - improving efficiency, and trying to find a way to make money faster. I don't doubt that kids running lemonade stands don't go through this same thought process. I sure know that businessmen do, and that is quite evident with all of the Six Sigma business consultants out there.
Okay so, is there a way to create a robotic flight line aircraft washing machine? I believe there is, and I don't think it is as difficult as one might have been led to believe. In looking at the military's UAV drone program, where we have UAV bases in faraway countries, it makes sense to have fewer flight line personnel, not only for their own safety, but also to conserve cost in our military.
If the unmanned aerial vehicles are completely robotic, and are flown tele-robotically from thousands of miles away through satellite links, why can't robotic service machines do all the work for ground support? The answer to this question is; of course they can, however no one has taken it upon themselves to solve this problem, save the military money, or invent robotic systems which can re-fuel the aircraft, do minor preventative maintenance, and wash the aircraft's surface.
Nevertheless, the topic has come up at our think tank, and having been in the aircraft washing business all my life, I think it is possible to create the ground support robots, and also robots which can wash the entire airplane flawlessly while doing pre-fight safety checks, and preparing the aircraft for its next sortie or mission.
Having been in the car wash business, and around industrial robotics for a good portion of my life, it seems to me the only difference between a car going through a robotic tunnel carwash, and building an aircraft washing unit to clean an airplane on the flight line is that on one hand the car moves through the robotic tunnel, and when cleaning an airplane in this way, the tunnel goes over the plane so to speak.
Philosophically speaking, what is the difference? Not much, not much at all actually. In fact, I don't think it would be very hard to build, or very costly. Also I don't believe the time from conception and prototype design to use in the battlespace has to be very long either. This is one way our military can save money. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
Lance Winslow has launched a new series of eBooks on Aurcraft Cleaning. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/
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