Fault Detection/Location System for Intermediate and Tail Rotor Gearboxes

This paper outlines some of the problems of Failure Detection/Location Systems for helicopter drive systems, and discusses the particular problems posed by the AH-64A Apache attack helicopter. It then proceeds to the test and design efforts which have been conducted over the last four years and which have resulted in the presently installed vibration-monitoring system for the tail rotor drive on the Apache. Some avenues for further development of the techniques used are then mentioned.