1 HELICOPTER HEALTH MONITORING AND FAILURE PREVENTION THROUGH VIBRATION MANAGEMENT

A Vibration Management Enhancement Program (VMEP) effort is currently under way at the South Carolina Army National Guard, Army Aviation Support Facility (SCARNG-AASF) in cooperation with the University of South Carolina (USC). The purpose of the program is to minimize aircraft operation cost, reduce maintenance flights, augment aircraft availability, and increase safety through in-flight vibrations monitoring, on-line data processing and artificial intelligence based decisions. The program is targeting Apache (AH-64), Blackhawk (UH-60), and Kiowa Warrior (OH-58D) helicopters. The instrumented aircraft are at the SCARNG-AASF at McEntire Air National Guard Station in South Carolina. University of South Carolina is responsible for the cost and effectiveness analysis of the VMEP program, the establishment of a data repository for the collected data, and the development of long-term helicopter health monitoring and failure prevention methodology based on in-flight vibrations measurements. This paper presents the general methodology adopted in the VMEP programs, th