TURNAROUND: 3D Printing Sends Broken F-15 Back to Action Within Hours.

US Air Force and Marine Corps repair teams have joined forces to send a damaged F-15 back to flight status in just a few hours, far ahead of the original several-month timeline.

The 18th Maintenance Group (18 MXG) at Kadena Air Base in Japan reached out to Marine Aircraft Logistics Squadron 36 (MALS-36) to leverage its on-site additive manufacturing equipment in repairing a malfunctioning cooling duct.

Within 12 hours, the teams printed, delivered, and installed two prototypes that restored the duct to operational condition, beating engineers’ original four-month repair estimate.

By roughly 119-and-a-half days. Impressive.