Brake and slider for a maintenance stand

Description (excerpt)

STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT INTEREST The invention described and claimed herein may be manufactured, licensed and used by and for the Government of the United States of America for all government purposes without the payment of any royalty. CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS Pursuant to 37 C.F.R. § 1.78(a)(4), this application claims the benefit of and priority to prior filed co-pending Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 18/667,215, filed May 17, 2024, which is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention is related to a support bar and slider brakably and translatably disposed thereon for positioning a fixture in a stationary position and more particularly to such a support bar and breakable slider having infinite resolution of one relative to the other. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In 1946 the Air Force issued a requirement for a bomber aircraft having an unrefueled range of 8000 miles with a 10,000 pound bomb load and a top speed of 450 mph. That year a preliminary design contract was awarded to the Boeing Company with the first B-52 roll-out on Nov. 29, 1951, the first flight on Apr. 15, 1952 and the last B-52 Stratofortress delivered Oct. 26, 1962. A total of 744 B-52 aircraft were produced between 1952 and 1962. Engineering analysis indicates the expected lifespan of the B-52 extends beyond 2040 and possibly for 100 years. The B-52H model aircraft has a wingspan of 185 feet, a length of 157 feet and gross weight of 488,000 pounds. The B-52 aircraft have six to seven spoilers asymmetrically usable to help the ailerons with roll control, or symmetrically to act as airbrakes. Clearly, the flight control surfaces are critical to safe and continuing operation of the B-52 aircraft. A common factor for all B52 aircraft is the need to maintain and restore the flight control surfaces of the wings. Each wing has a length of almost 161 feet, an area of 4000 square feet, a taper ratio of 0.37 and a leading edge sweep of 35 degrees. The flight control surfaces are critical aerodynamic portions of the wings which allow the pilot to adjust and control the aircraft pitch during flight. Since the original B-52 production in the 1950's, time and space constraints require fast turnover for maintenance of tens of thousands of various and irregularly shaped aircraft components. A flight control surface stand for maintaining such flight control surfaces is advantageously disclosed in commonly assigned application Ser. No. 18/341,459 filed Jun. 26, 2023 in the names of Jones et al., the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. But the military not only has this particular bomber aircraft. The Department of the Air Force has: supply aircraft such as the C-130 Hercules, C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster; refueling aircraft such as the KC-135 Tanker and E-2D Hawkeye; combat aircraft such as the F-35 Lightening, F-22 Raptor and F-16 Falcon and stealth aircraft such as the B-2 Spirit and the B-21 Raider with deliveries expected in the mid-2020's to name a few. Each of these aircraft, and more, has hundreds of parts which need to be removed, held in one or more specific positions for inspection, held in yet other positions for restoration, and in yet other positions for qualification before being placed back in service. A single Air Force base may service various aircraft. The specific aircraft to be serviced can vary over time, and even include one-off servicing of a specific aircraft as needed. Due to space constraints such maintenance often occurs in a single bay of a hangar. I.e. the same hangar bay may support maintenance for a small part from a current generation aircraft in the morning and for a large part from 6th generation aircraft in the afternoon. Furthermore, the required precision for military aircraft components requires resolutions of at least 0.001 inches. In addition to accommodating the almost unlimited variety of aircraft components, the maintenance equipment must be available without the need for external power in austere environments and usable in both stationary and portable configurations. Various attempts have been made in the art to meet these challenges. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,643,900, filed Mar. 2, 1970, teaches a jig panel for use with aircraft wings. U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,903, filed Jul. 6, 1988, teaches a jig for holding wing skin panels. U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,146, filed Oct. 26, 1988, teaches a jig for holding wing spars. U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,147, priority filed Sep. 1, 1990, teaches an assembly jig for aircraft spar components. U.S. Pat. No. 7,574,933, priority filed Oct. 31, 2001, teaches an index system for holding a wing spar.