Wireless health usage and monitoring systems (Hums) are currently flying experimentally in four U.S. military rotorcraft. If the system proves successful, it could one day be standard equipment on all military and civilian helicopters for a price predicted to be 90 percent less than that of current wired systems, which cost up to $200,000 each. Past success with wired systems used to measure structural loading on Navy F/A-18s suggests that a wireless Hums could double an aircraft’s useful life and provide significant ongoing maintenance and operational cost savings. It could also be used as a training tool for pilots and to report an aircraft’s condition, including exceedances, in real time to an operations center.
The premise is simple, said Steve Arms, president of MicroStrain, the Vermont company that has developed the technology. “You can extend the life of rotating parts if you track them more accurately.” Arms says regime recognition, the current system of using slip rings and wired strain gages on a few test helicopters, generally during certification of airframes and follow-on components, is a poor predictor of part health and life on individual helicopters.
