3 Benefits Predictive Insights Have on Honeywell HUMS Technology

Whether your mission is medical Search and Rescue (SAR), offshore transportation or executing your mission in an active warfighting zone, the reliability of your helicopter is paramount. Today’s aircraft depend on advanced technologies to get through operations where safety, efficiency and speed mean the difference between mission success and failure.

Honeywell’s Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) for helicopters have become a vital factor for many commercial, defense agencies and military organizations. The system’s sensors and embedded diagnostic software monitor the health of your aircraft’s mission-critical components to enhance situational awareness and aid decision making.

Here are some critical ways HUMS delivers Savings and Safety insights:

Increase Availability:

A primary benefit of HUMS is that it continuously monitors helicopter performance. Benefits include measuring vibration rates as well as drivetrain, engines, gearboxes, shafts, fans, rotor systems and other dynamic components to alert you of any potential or pending component failures. This data enables maintenance crews to practice condition-based maintenance, meaning helicopters won’t be grounded unnecessarily. It also means crews can more efficiently schedule maintenance tasks before they become issues that negatively affect availability or even result in aborted missions. Using Honeywell HUMS has helped our customers cut down on scheduled maintenance by 5-10% and reduce flight cancellations by 30%.

Maintenance and Operation Costs:

Condition Based Maintenance has proven to substantially cut maintenance/operating costs in the near term and over the life cycle of the aircraft and avoids costs of spares usage, dedicated flight tests and asset recapitalization. Using Honeywell HUMS has proven to provide cost savings by cutting down on scheduled maintenance by 5-10% and reducing maintenance Test Flights by 20%.

Enhanced Safety:

In additional to increased aircraft availability and maintenance cost savings – A real value is knowing that your helicopters are safe to operate for crews and passengers. Honeywell HUMS has proven to provide critical indications of excessive component wear and pending component failure. This proactive approach heads off accidents before they happen. Data signaling potential problems on one aircraft has proven to useful to support comprehensive analyze an entire fleet, helping to avoid further flight interruptions and potentially identifying previously unrecognized safety issues.

The latest evolution of HUMS is RECON:

RECON is a connected onboard system capable of sending critical aircraft health indicators to operators in real time. It acquires in-flight drivetrain data and processes it for accurate diagnosis eight times faster than predecessor systems. That means you get quick insights on helicopter performance that allow you to act faster—especially in highly precise operations where seconds matter. You can reduce flight-test data acquisition time by 85% and get your aircraft into real action sooner. RECON also delivers data and insights where and when you need them, whether in-flight, pre- or post-flight or at mission control.

Trusted experts and analytics: 

Along with monitoring the performance and health of helicopter components, Honeywell HUMS also includes robust data analytics software and services that can give you deeper insight into your operations and aircraft. The solution provides access to Honeywell’s vast database of aircraft data, which allows you to gather trending data and prognostics based on a global store of historical information. Because you can see data and trends from many aircraft, your insights are more accurate than using only your own data. Earlier detection of faults and better maintenance can lead to fewer mechanical issues, lower maintenance costs and more successful missions.

In high-stakes operations, having accurate insights into aircraft performance and health can save lives. With HUMS solutions from Honeywell, you can move personnel and equipment faster and with more confidence, no matter your mission—while also cutting down on scheduled and unscheduled downtime and reducing in-flight maintenance issues. We help deliver the real-time information you need to keep helicopters working at peak performance to keep crews safe and missions successful.