IN SEARCH OF A COMMON HUMS — MEETING MILITARY AND COMMERCIAL REQUIREMENTS

A Common system is defined as “a system architecture with published interfaces that, based on its widespread acceptance by suppliers, integrators, and operators, becomes a de facto standard.” Several organizations are pursuing common and/or non-proprietary Open Systems to meet their needs. Government initiatives, in particular, have opened the door to the procurement of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) equipment by the U.S. military. While it was the military that led early flight recorder and monitoring system development on fixed-wing aircraft such as the F-16’s Standard Flight Data Recorder, the F-18 MDRS/ECAMS, and later the V-22 VSLED/AMEGS, it was the commercial sector that sought technically and economically feasible systems to meet the special requirements of the North Sea environment that could be fitted to all helicopter types. Third generations of these systems have already been developed by HUMS suppliers in cooperation with airframe manufacturers. Single board HUMS modules are ready for integration. The Canadian Forces has fielded a COTS derivative for the 412CF Utility Aircraft. The U.K. MOD, the U.S. Navy as part of its COSSI initiative, the U.S. Army Digital Source Collector program, the Joint Services JAHUMS program, and others are pursuing COTS derivatives to meet their own helicopter HUMS requirements. The question arises as to how these efforts might come together, what the true common requirements are, and how unique requirements can be dealt with. These issues are pivotal to the development of next-generation helicopter diagnostic systems. HUMS requirements are multi-dimensional and must meet a broad set of user needs. These requirements fall into the categories of functional requirements, airborne processing requirements, cockpit interface requirements, “At Aircraft” requirements, line maintenance HUMS ground station requirements, and up-line maintenance management system requirements. This paper will review the requirements, propose possible approaches, develop a generic system architecture with top-level system requirements, and finally propose a common set of user interface requirements and functions for use in the cockpit, at the aircraft, and within the ground station/ logistics system Interfaces.