UTAS Working with Army On Real-time HUMS

United Technologies Aerospace Systems (UTAS) is investing in new technologies for the Army’s Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program that may have more immediate retrofit benefits to the service’s current fleet of Apaches, Blackhawks, and Chinooks.

“The current fleet of Army aircraft have gained a significant amount of weight since coming into service and therefore their performance has been reduced,” explained Ed McKee, UTAS director for Redstone Arsenal Programs. “The target is to help the Army regain some of that performance and then mature those technologies to meet the requirements of Future Vertical Lift.

"Those types of technologies and components we are investing in for current fleet upgrade include drive systems, structural composites, the next generation of vehicle management controls, and health monitoring and structural health monitoring at the complete vehicle level not just a couple of vehicle components. The Army is looking at real-time HUMS as an objective for FVL to reduce sustainment costs and create maintenance-free operating periods for FVL rather than the regular maintenance intervals that are regularly performed on the current fleet of aircraft,” he said.  

McKee said UTAS already provides the download HUMS system for the Army’s Blackhawk fleet and is currently working on the next generation of platform and component health monitoring within the Army’s Future Embedded Rotorcraft Sustainment and Technology program. He said once a real-time HUMS solution was developed as part of that initiative it could be retrofitted to the Army’s legacy fleet.

UTAS is also working with the Army on two other important rotorcraft programs that will benefit the current fleet, ITEP, the Improved Turbine Engine Program, and DVE-M, Degraded Visual Environment—Mitigation. The goal of the ITEP program is to provide an upgrade engine for Apaches and Blackhawks that will provide 50 percent more power, be 25 percent more fuel efficient, and have no net weight increase. The Army has selected two finalists for the ITEP competition—GE Aviation and the Advanced Turbine Engine Company, a joint venture of Honeywell and Pratt & Whitney. The Army is due to make a final selection in November. UTAS is working with both teams, providing technology and components including engine controls, fuel metering units, fuel nozzles, temperature sensors, and inlet particle separators.

On DVE-M, UTAS is fielding its Lidar (light detection and radar) airborne imaging sensor and next generation of vehicle/flight management controls. The Lidar is being tested in conjunction with midwave and shortwave radars. McKee pointed out that UTAS already supplies the laser warning system on the Army’s legacy Apaches, Blackhawks, and Chinooks and that upgrading the sensors on those aircraft with an imaging sensor could “provide that 360-degree situational awareness that is part of a DVE solution.” The other part would be the flight controls that would provide supervised autonomous flight “or some degree of optionally manned” flight that could automatically land the helicopter in degraded situations.