AFWERX funds successful kitted maintenance enclosure product for improved DAF fleet sustainment

A DIRT Bag 6090 maintainer fabricated enclosure kit, or MFEK, is set up for an on-aircraft demonstration of a structural repair in a hangar at a Marine Corps Air Station facility in July 2022. A MFEK is a pre-fabricated walk-in enclosure that rapidly enables maintainers to perform sustainment on the Air Force’s current fleet of combat aircraft in a controlled, dust- and debris-free environment that works the same way for every maintainer, every time. The enclosure is comprised of durable, transparent panels and a lightweight, reconfigurable frame made of telescoping poles, and is scalable and reconfigurable from 54” up to 90”. AFWERX, the DAF’s innovation arm and a functional directorate within the Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, funded the design, development and successful flightline testing of Cornerstone Research Group’s DIRT Bag DB-6090, which will be sold alongside the smaller DIRT Bag DB-2424 model previously developed under an AFRL Small Business Innovation Research program. (U.S. Air Force photo)