Aircraft health and usage monitoring system with comparative fleet statistics

• US 20070260726A1
• Filed: 05/04/2006
• Published: 11/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Inventors: Cycon, James, Rozak, James
• Granted Patent: US 7,984,146 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/30 Transportation; Communications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

A Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) utilizes a common architecture which permits OEM and rotorcraft operators to view and trend HUMS data for an entire aircraft fleet independent of aircraft model, HUMS vendor, or raw data format. The system operates through a web portal that provides users with comparative information on HUMS parameters relative to fleet statistics. The user may view HUMS data for the entire fleet or drill down to a particular HUMS acquisition on a specific flight. The web based format also facilities display and communication of warnings in a timely manner.

Claims

1. A health and usage monitoring system service comprising:

a first end-user FTP site;

a second end-user FFP site;

an OEM file server in communication with said first end-user FTP site and said second user FTP site;

an OEM on-line transactional database server in communication with said OEM file server; and

an OEM webserver in communication with said OEM on-line transactional database server, said OEM webserver operable to selectively provide HUMS data for a first aircraft fleet associated with a first end-user through said first end-user FTP site, HUMS data for a second aircraft fleet associated with a second end-user through said second end-user FTP site, and HUMS trend data compiled from said first aircraft fleet and said second aircraft fleet to both said first end-user and said second end-user.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein said OEM on-line transactional database server is operable to store compiled HUMS data from said first aircraft fleet and said second aircraft fleet

3. The system as recited in claim 1, further comprising an OEM warehouse server in communication with said OEM on-line transactional database server, said OEM warehouse operable to store raw HUMS data.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein said OEM file server convert HUMS data from said first end-user FTP site and said second end-user FTP site to a common HUMS data format.

5. A method of health and usage monitoring comprising the steps of:

(A) communicating HUMS data from a multitude of end-users to an OEM file server;

(B) compiling the HUMS data at the OEM file server; and

(C) communicating data from said step (B) to all of said multitude of end-users as HUMS trend data.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, further comprising the step of:

(D) limiting aircraft specific HUMS data to only that end-user which operates the aircraft associated with the aircraft specific HUMS data.

7. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein said step (B) further comprises the step of:

(a) converting the HUMS data from each of said multitude of end-users into a common HUMS data format.

8. A method as recited in claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

(D) applying logic rules to the HUMS data from each of said multitude of end-users to identify an anomaly; and

(E) issuing an alert to a specific end-user in response to said step (D).

9. A method as recited in claim 8, wherein said step (E) further comprises the step of:

(a) issuing the alert to the specific end-user via email.

10. A method of health and usage monitoring comprising the steps of:

(A) communicating HUMS data from a multitude of end-users to an OEM file server;

(B) compiling the HUMS data at the OEM file server; and

(C) limiting aircraft specific HUMS data to only that end-user which operates the aircraft associated with the aircraft specific HUMS data.

11. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising the step of:

(D) communicating data from said step (B) to all of said multitude of end-users as HUMS trend data.