Gulfstream G150 Join Cell

The tooling for the Gulfstream G150 is a simple, open, post and index system is used for final alignment and joining of the fuselage and wings. 19 manually actuated axes precisely move the wings, forward, and rear fuselage sections into position. Movement is accomplished with industrial jacking screws and positions recorded with precision linear potentiometers. Wing sweep, angle of attack, and dihedral are monitored and controlled. The axes positions are downloaded to data files for verification and data archiving. The Gulfstream G150 Join Cell’s open architecture enhances access to fasten the main aircraft structure while maintaining flight critical geometry.

Important aspects of the join cell include
• An “open” post-type architecture to facilitate access to the wing fuselage joints for drilling and fastening
• Intuitive, jack-screw-assisted manual movement of the aircraft sections
• 19 axes of jack-screw assisted motion for moving fuselage and wing sections into the correct positions
• Accurate measurement and adjustment of the wing tips for sweep, angle of attack, and dihedral
• Accurate location of the rear engine mounts
• The ability for gross movement (1 meter) of wings and fuselage sections apart to assist cleaning and deburring
• The ability to easily move the wings and fuselage sections back to a previously established position
• An electronic method of verifying and recording each axes join positions
• Process improvement by verifying and reviewing final join positions aircraft-to-aircraft

The production version of the concept for an, open, postsupported, final fuselage join cell has proven to be simple to use by aircraft mechanics. The Join Cell provides open access, benefiting the final aircraft joining for the G150 business jet. Physical repeatability coupled with electronic data recording contribute to the quality of the final G150 airframes.