APRIL 9, 2025 – Innovation isn’t always pretty. Sometimes, it’s downright grimy—but worth its weight in gold.
At the 911th Airlift Wing, a collaboration with Boeing has resulted in a groundbreaking, low-cost solution for replacing a non-critical part in the C-17 Globemaster III. The part in question? A drip pan for the aircraft’s lavatory. Though it may not seem glamorous, the 3D-printed drip pan represents a leap forward in aerospace innovation, with potential long-term savings for taxpayers.
The part may seem minor, but the impact is anything but. A once-obsolete component now represents increasing momentum in aerospace logistics and maintenance, showing how additive manufacturing (AM) can provide fast, cost-effective, and reliable solutions—especially as legacy airframes age and traditional suppliers fade away.
The partnership between the 911th’s metals technology shop and Boeing highlights how the Air Force is leveraging additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, to meet the challenges of aging fleets and rising maintenance costs. Instead of waiting months or even years for replacement components, maintainers can now fabricate them on demand, reducing both time and financial costs.
Master Sgt. Michael Howard, metals technology section chief in the fabrication flight at the 911th Maintenance Squadron, has been at the forefront of this initiative. The traditional C-17 drip pan has become obsolete as the original equipment manufacturer is no longer in business. With no reliable supply chain, replacements have become a costly and time-consuming process and can take weeks to procure.
“The original pan was made using ‘rotomolding’ with liquid nylon resin, but the original equipment manufacturing company is no longer in business,” Howard explained. “Repairs are temporary, and one-off replacements cost around $10,000.”
In response, the fabrication flight began working in March 2023 with Boeing engineers and the C-17 System Program Office to explore additive manufacturing as a way to reproduce the part at a fraction of the cost and time. After extensive coordination, the team produced a replacement using Antero 800, a high-performance thermoplastic known for its tensile strength and resistance to chemicals.
“This part lives directly under the toilet system, so it has to withstand exposure to blue water and other corrosive materials,” said Howard. “Antero 800 gave us the durability we needed, and 3D printing gave us the speed and precision to replicate the part exactly.”
The result? A brand-new, customized drip pan that costs just $1,200 to produce and takes around 60 hours to print. The new version includes thicker walls, added stiffeners, and redesigned inserts—upgrades that directly address the structural weaknesses of the legacy part. Alongside an 88% mark down in price, Steel Airmen are saving weeks of operational downtime ensuring the fleet’s strategic agility and mission readiness.
Howard said the first printed drip pan was installed as part of a six-month flight trial. “We wanted to make sure the part would hold up in real-world conditions before going all in,” he said. With the trial run complete the first “ready for action” pan was installed on April 2, 2025.
Inspections are part of the rollout. Crew chiefs monitor the pan for leaks after every mission using a built-in sight glass, and the lavatory assembly will be fully disassembled for a close inspection during the next home station check.
Boeing’s Frank A. DiCocco, an aircraft engineer with decades of experience in technology and advanced manufacturing, praised the collaboration. He noted that Boeing’s biggest concern with field-printed parts is ensuring proper coordination and communication with engineering teams to validate performance and maintain airworthiness. Airworthiness is a central concern — while the part itself is non-flight-critical, a failure in the lavatory system can reduce the aircraft’s mission flexibility, range, or aircrew capacity.
Boeing has been supportive of the 911th’s initiative, but not without emphasizing the importance of close coordination throughout the process.
“The main concern is good communication and coordination with the local Boeing FETS office to verify and validate that AM parts will perform at the level required to maintain Airworthiness requirements,” said DiCocco. “The local FETS team will coordinate with Boeing Long Beach to perform any analysis required.”
FETS or Field Engineering Technical Support teams are essentially on-site engineering representatives who provide technical assistance and liaison services between Boeing and military maintenance personnel. Acting as the bridge between a military unit and Boeing’s wider engineering resources they help validate and troubleshoot technical issues on aircraft systems or components and coordinate engineering changes or upgrades. Especially when field-level modifications or repairs are needed.
As aircraft age, 3D printing offers a solution to a growing problem: parts that are no longer in production or supported by original manufacturers.
“Like the toilet base pan, there are many potential opportunities that AM can address,” DiCocco said. “As aircraft age like the C-17, the suppliers who fabricated many of the parts are often no longer in business, have lost many of the molds, and tooling required, have lost the personnel experts or found that supply of these parts at the relatively low volume required by the C-17 does not make a good business case.”
An emerging relationship between Boeing, the 911th Airlift Wing, and technology specialists outside its front gate is Neighborhood 91– an advanced manufacturing campus located adjacent to Pittsburgh International Airport. Developed by the Allegheny County Airport Authority, it is recognized as the world’s first dedicated additive manufacturing industrial campus. With an aim to consolidate the entire additive manufacturing supply chain into a single ecosystem, it offers shared resources such as powder production, part manufacturing, testing, and analysis to businesses within the Greater Pittsburgh region to enhance efficiency, reduce production costs, and shorten lead times for companies involved in 3D printing– to include the 911th AW.
Partnering with Neighborhood 91, DiCocco noted that Boeing is currently working to develop an alternative to the C-17’s engine mast drain using metal additive manufacturing to replace a cast composite assembly.
“Boeing engineers bring a wealth of knowledge around advanced technology and advanced manufacturing,” DiCocco said. “I have been working in the technology development/advanced manufacturing field for probably 30 years. A lot of that time was in the AM space. So, I have a really good feel for what products lend themselves to AM alternatives.” He also gave credit to the Airmen on the ground, saying, “We are fortunate at the 911th to have highly skilled personnel… who also have the passion to embrace this technology.”
Looking ahead, Steel Airmen will continue monitoring the part’s condition over the trial period and assess its long-term durability. According to DiCocco, inspections will occur after every flight and more extensively during the next home station check. Early feedback has already sparked interest from other units.
“We are already getting a lot of questions and requests to supply the pan to their bases for their aircraft,” DiCocco said. “We anticipate making a few minor design changes and then we will proceed with official engineering drawing development and implementation. I would anticipate that the AM pan should last at least as long as the baseline pan.”
Beyond the numbers, DiCocco emphasized the broader significance of the project.
“It is very fulfilling to be able to solve a problem and supply a product using state-of-the-art facilities and personnel at the 911th AW,” he said. “This part, and more like it, will have broad appeal and impact and lend itself for more of the same.”
As the Air Force looks for innovative ways to stretch taxpayer dollars and keep aging aircraft flying, initiatives like this one show how modern technology — and a bit of elbow grease — can help keep even the humblest of parts mission-ready.
Story by Jeffrey Grossi
911th Airlift Wing