Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures to Extend Component Remaining Useful Life based on Aircraft Maneuvers

Sustainment Operations rely on reliability centered maintenance approaches to determine component retirement regardless of actual remaining useful life. With maintenance actions accounting for a significant portion of overall operating costs, operators seek approaches that maximize service intervals. Integrated Vehicle Health Management concepts afford an adaptive approach that can reduce the frequency of required maintenance actions based on proactively managing the damage incurred during flight operations. Tactics to gain airworthiness approval for extending remaining useful life and instructions for maintaining continued airworthiness are proposed. Techniques to identify, quantify, substantiate, and validate component failure rates for basic flight maneuvers are discussed. Finally, a pilot cueing system and the procedures for recommending pilot actions to manage health during flight operations are presented.