Gription Reusable Aircraft Walking Surface Protection System

Energy, Environment, Health, and Safety

Problem Statement: Aircraft maintainers need secure footing and reliable surface protection while working on aircraft wings and other sensitive areas. Maintenance teams have relied on single-use, adhesive-backed protective film or tape not designed for repeated cycles. These materials absorb liquids and debris, lose traction over time, tear easily, and must be discarded after each use. Adhesive residue adds cleanup labor, and limited customization makes them hard to adapt across aircraft configurations, driving recurring costs, waste, and inconsistent protection.

Description of the Innovation Solution: CatTongue Grips developed Gription®, a patented, double-sided, non-adhesive material delivering high-friction traction through engineered surface texture rather than adhesive bonding. Unlike single-use adhesive tapes and films, Gription is the only reusable, non-adhesive traction solution of its kind. The grip works on both sides and leaves no residue after removal. Its non-abrasive, antimicrobial surface protects sensitive finishes while cushioning maintainers. Gription can be fabricated into standardized kits for any fixed- or rotary-wing aircraft, not limited to a single airframe.

Benefits to the DOW: Gription cuts recurring consumable costs, setup/cleanup labor, and material waste versus disposables, while improving mechanic safety through better footing. The material is not airframe-specific: standardized kits can scale across any fixed- or rotary-wing aircraft in the DOW inventory, not only the F-35, where first fielded, extending the same benefits Air Force-wide and across every other service branch and DLA. It adds non-slip traction to maintenance platforms, ladders, handrails, vehicles, and tools.

Innovation Challenges: Achieving secure, double-sided grip without adhesive, while remaining non-abrasive to sensitive finishes and resistant to liquids and debris, required significant material engineering, now resolved in the current design. The remaining challenge is transitioning from a custom-fitted solution for one platform to standardized kit sizes that fit any airframe without individual fabrication. CatTongue Grips is developing a modular sizing system to enable rapid fielding DOW-wide.

Technical Maturity/Demonstration Results: Gription is beyond prototype and has been demonstrated in an Air Force F-35 maintenance depot for the past year, with measurements and configurations refined for the airframe. It has generated four follow-on orders as the depot secures funding for additional kits. “The mechanics definitely prefer the CatTongue over any other prior material for multiple reasons. Easier to set up, reusable, more grip, and they just feel safer walking on the aircraft,” said an Engineering Technician, U.S. Air Force. It is currently deployed on the F-35, with the design able to expand to additional platforms. It is also used on a U.S. Navy rigid inflatable boat as a non-skid, more comfortable surface for crew to work from.