Method of organizing aircraft maintenance

• US 8,478,477 B2
• Filed: 07/28/2009
• Issued: 07/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Helicopters
• Original Assignee: Eurocopter
• Inventors: Glade, Mathieu, Lyonnet, Patrick, Maisonneuve, Pierre-Loic, Ghelam, Samir
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): HUYNH, LUAT T
• Application Number:
  US12/510,374
• Publication Number:
  US 20100023209A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,435 Days
• Field of Search: 701/29.4, 701/33.4, 701/32.9, 701/31.6, 701/29.1, 340/500, 340/945
• US Class Current: 701/29.4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A method of managing maintenance of an aircraft. The method includes defining a recommended maintenance program for the aircraft. Maintenance deadlines for the recommended maintenance program are determined by using primary data from a testing of at least one of pieces of equipment and elements of the aircraft. Utilization data for the aircraft is used and stored. A calculation device is used to implement at least one algorithm to recalculate the maintenance deadlines as a function of the actual utilization data. The recommended maintenance program is updated.

Claims

1. A method of managing maintenance of a helicopter, the helicopter having on board equipment to be maintained, a calculation device having a microcontroller and a storage device for hosting algorithms, a plurality of sensors configured to provide health and use parameter values of the equipment to be maintained, a recommended maintenance program (RMP) defining maintenance deadlines calculated from primary data of design of the equipment to be maintained and of flight testing of the helicopter, the method comprising:

defining a dynamic recommended maintenance program for the helicopter by

using and storing in the storage device actual utilization data calculated from the health and use parameter values for the helicopter;

using the calculation device to recalculate the maintenance deadlines as a function of the actual utilization data; and

updating in real time the dynamic recommended maintenance program by determining influential degradation parameters representative of modes of degradation of the equipment to be maintained;

wherein the actual utilization data includes five families including load data, lubrication data, environmental data, flight stage data, and experience feedback data;

wherein the load data includes torques and moments applied to mechanical elements of the helicopter, the lubrication data includes lubrication of mechanical parts, measurements of a lubricating power of oil and a degree of pollution of oil, the environmental data includes weather, temperatures, pressures, and altitudes, the flight stage data includes stages of flight, aerodynamic forces, and vibration, and the experience feedback data includes a health of another helicopter including the same equipment to be maintained.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

determining threshold values for the influential degradation parameters; and

determining during a life cycle whether the influential degradation parameters exceed the threshold values.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

processing the influential degradation parameters; and

determining a maintenance credit.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

utilizing and analyzing the at least one of health data and use data so as to track at least one of degradation modes of elements of the equipment of the helicopter and to determine at least one of a level of a wear for the elements of the equipment, a percentage of wear for the elements of the equipment and information on the potential remaining lifetime of the elements of the equipment.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the degradation modes are tracked with at least one predefined calculation model.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the predefined calculation model is determined during a design of the helicopter.

7. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the degradation modes are tracked with at least one of a damage calculation and an accumulated damage calculation model of mechanical parts of the helicopter.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the damage calculation model further comprises imputing values stored in real time and derived from the at least one of health data and use data so as to recalculate at least one of a wear to and a damage of the mechanical parts of the helicopter.

9. A managing maintenance unit for surveillance, calculation and decision for maintenance of a helicopter to implement a method of managing maintenance of the helicopter, wherein the unit comprises:

at least one sensor configured to obtain actual utilization data for the helicopter;

a calculation device configured on at least one of the ground and on board the helicopter, the calculation device further configured to obtain a recommended maintenance program including maintenance deadlines for the helicopter, to determine influential degradation parameters representative of modes of degradation of at least one of pieces of equipment and elements of the helicopter, to subject the influential degradation parameters to surveillance by using the actual utilization data and to determine during a life cycle whether the influential degradation parameters exceed threshold values, and to host at least one algorithm incorporating at least one calculation model configured to dynamically recalculate the maintenance deadlines as a function of the actual utilization data and whether the influential degradation parameters exceed the threshold values;

a storage device configured to record the actual utilization data; and

a formatting device configured to act on at least one of the ground and on board the helicopter to update the recommended maintenance program according to the recalculated maintenance deadlines and to issue a dynamic and current recommended maintenance program (RMP) by including the recalculated maintenance deadlines, wherein the updating of the recommended maintenance program is performed by the formatting device in at least one of in real time and after each use of the helicopter.

10. The unit recited in claim 9, wherein

the calculation device is a microcontroller;

and

the storage device is disposed on at least one of a microcontroller, the at least one sensor and other sources of information.

11. The unit as recited in claim 9, wherein the unit is associated with a transmission device configured to transmit at least one of the use data, the health data and the updated dynamic recommended maintenance program (RMP) to at least one fixed base on the ground.

12. The unit as recited in claim 9, wherein the unit includes a recording device in a form of an on-board black box in the helicopter and a station enabling data to be processed on the ground.

13. A method of managing maintenance of a helicopter, the method comprising:

defining a recommended maintenance program for the helicopter;

determining maintenance deadlines for the recommended maintenance program by using primary data from a testing of at least one of pieces of equipment and elements of the helicopter;

obtaining actual utilization data for the helicopter using a sensor and storing the actual utilization data for the helicopter in a storage device connected to the sensor;

determining influential degradation parameters representative of modes of degradation of the at least one of pieces of equipment and elements of the helicopter;

subjecting the influential degradation parameters to surveillance by using the actual utilization data;

determining threshold values for the influential degradation parameters;

determining during a life cycle whether the influential degradation parameters exceed the threshold values;

using a calculation device configured on at least one of the ground and on board the helicopter to implement at least one algorithm to recalculate the maintenance deadlines as a function of the actual utilization data and whether the influential degradation parameters exceed the threshold values; and

updating the recommended maintenance program according to the recalculated maintenance deadlines using a formatting device, wherein the updating of the recommended maintenance program is performed by the formatting device in at least one of in real time and after each use of the helicopter.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the testing includes at least one of a design testing and a flight testing.

15. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the actual utilization data includes at least one of use data and health data stored by an on-board surveillance system of the helicopter.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, further comprising:

utilizing and analyzing the at least one of health data and use data so as to track at least one of degradation modes of elements of the pieces of equipment of the helicopter and to determine at least one of a level of a wear for the elements of the pieces of equipment, a percentage of wear for the elements of the pieces of equipment and information on the potential remaining lifetime of the elements of the pieces of equipment.