US 12,378,003 B2
Aircraft skin alignment system and method with edge indexing
Royce Heick, Goddard, KS (US); Aaron Paul Shirley, Wichita, KS (US); Clark Ray Miller, Wichita, KS (US); William Richardson, Conway Springs, KS (US); and Jason Short, Wichita, KS (US)
Assigned to Textron Innovations Inc., Providence, RI (US)
Filed by Textron Aviation Inc., Wichita, KS (US)
Filed on Jan. 16, 2024, as Appl. No. 18/413,903.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/480,265, filed on Jan. 17, 2023.
Prior Publication US 2024/0239517 A1, Jul. 18, 2024
Int. Cl. B64F 5/10 (2017.01); B64C 1/12 (2006.01)
CPC B64F 5/10 (2017.01) [B64C 1/12 (2013.01)] 9 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of aligning aircraft skin, comprising:
loading a first aircraft skin onto a support structure;
engaging a puller tool with the first aircraft skin;
applying a pulling force to the first aircraft skin via the puller tool, wherein the applied pulling force pulls an edge of the first aircraft skin to an edge locator of a clamp tool; and
drilling one or more tool holes through the first aircraft skin as the first edge abuts the edge locator;
wherein the one or more tool holes are aligned based on an edge index due to a position of the edge locator.