By 2024 Luke Air Force Base plans to house 144 of the F-35 aircraft. The average F-35 tire life is around 10 landings, and it takes a four-man crew to lift for service, since the tire weighs more than 160 pounds fully-assembled and aired up. As the second base in the Air Force to receive the F-35, the 56th Fighter Wings wheel and tire shop are pioneers in the maintenance of the F-35's tires. Luke AFB needs innovative solutions for serving and repairing aircraft wheels to keep up with demand and maintain an operational fleet. RoboTire has the solution. The RoboTire Robotic Tactical Tire Changing Vehicle (RT2V) solution will provide a rapidly deployable mechanism for servicing and repairing aircraft wheels on the tarmac (or elsewhere off-site) rather than requiring the vehicle to be brought to the system. The solution will provide a fast, accurate, repeatable, and extremely safe method for removing and reinstalling wheels including those on Luke AFBs fleet of F-35s. This capability will enable maintainers to automate tire swaps on the tarmac with minimal exposure to safety risks, thereby increasing the Air Force's Operational Mobility (readiness/preparedness), Survivability (safety/protection), and Lethality (deployment/recoverability), while significantly reducing cycle-time and increasing repeatable, reliable maintenance. RoboTire will utilize the SBIR Phase I to execute a 3-month feasibility study with 56th FW then transition to a Phase II to begin prototyping the solution.
