Airframe
707-320 aluminum structure
Both aircraft are militarized 707-320 family ships: riveted fail-safe fuselage, 2024 skins, 7075 stringers, 20-inch frames, tear straps.
Who this is for
People supporting E-3 Sentry and E-6 Mercury metallic structure — depot fab, manufacturing technology, planning, and hands-on repair.
- Depot and depot-adjacent fabricators working aluminum skins, stringers, and fittings
- Manufacturing technology / process engineers selecting form, heat treat, and hole methods
- Planners and trainers who need a shared vocabulary for 707-family sustainment work
Three facts that shape the work
E-3 Sentry
Rotodome on two struts
~30 ft dome, roughly 11 ft above the fuselage, hydraulic systems near 5000 psi, and EMP hardening baked into the design.
E-6 Mercury
SLEP, cold work, trailing wire
No rotodome. Dual VLF trailing wires, wingtip pods, extra aft structure. SLEP drove heavy wing fastener cold-work (~15,000 fasteners) and life extension ~27k → 45k hours.
Learning path
Work the six steps in order. Videos and formal courses come after you know the airframe and the shop flow.
1
Platforms
E-3 vs E-6 differences that drive metallic work today.
2Materials
Alloys, tempers, product forms, Alclad rules.
3Machines
Blank → form → heat treat → chem mill → machine → holes → peen → finish → NDI. Each machine card embeds a process demo.
4Fixtures & tools
Process tooling groups and common hand-tool sizes.
5Video library
Curated public videos by process — structures through CNC.
6Training & watch plan
Two-week checklist plus formal course links.
Featured videos
Four starters. Public content teaches machines and methods — not Boeing production jigs.
HOW IT WORKS: Aircraft Flush Riveting
Flush rivet process walkthrough — dimple, countersink, and set.
Stretch Forming Aircraft Skins
How stretch presses pull skins over form blocks.
Hydroforming for the Airframe Industry
Why airframe shops use high-pressure rubber-pad hydroform.
FTI Cold Expansion — Part 1
Split-sleeve cold expansion fundamentals used heavily on wing life-extension work.
Public video ≠ production jig drawings
These videos teach principles and common machines. Ship-specific fixtures, drill templates, and approved tooling live in the SRM, AMM, and controlled tooling packages — not on YouTube. Do not treat any clip as official E-3 or E-6 training.