Development of height-adjustable attachment for aircraft MRO tripod jacks.

In aviation MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul), most routine maintenance performed on the landing gear of an aircraft requires the airframe to be lifted off-deck entirely at various stages for system checks and retraction tests. To facilitate this, tripod jacks are placed at critical locations under the airframe. As there are a large variety of aircraft for maintenance, all with different design, weight and ground clearances, tripod jacks are made to be height-adjustable, albeit to a limited extent only, which hinders flexibility in use. This translates into MRO service providers stocking multiple models of tripod jacks to cater to broader clientele, and wider variety of aircrafts. This paper explores the conceptual design of using a single variable-height telescoping extension assembly by which a tripod jack can be suited for multi-use. The design and development of the design is based a popular Malabar fixed-height tripod Jack, while the aircrafts validating the concept are some of the most popular medium-range passenger jets in the market today, namely Airbus models A319, A320, A321 NEO family and the Boeing 757 family. The accessory proposed in this paper bridges the height gap between the wing jacking points of aforementioned aircrafts, which cannot be catered to by the Malabar International tripod jack, presently. The proposed accessory is easier to use, manufacture, maintain and more cost effective than existing alternatives. This concept can be extended to allow one model of tripod jack to lift a variety of aircrafts within its tonnage capacity, thereby eliminating the need for specific tripod jacks for specific aircraft, thus bringing down cost significantly for MRO service providers dealing with high volumes of similar aircraft from various manufacturers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]