Useful Life Improvements to Dynamic Components Through Remediation

Army Aviation is in the planning and proof of principle stages of the transition from reactive, fault-based maintenance to the proactive, predictive Condition Based Maintenance approach. Under the Condition Based Maintenance approach, the Army will have the ability to proactively drive maintenance with mission requirements by converting data on aircraft condition and usage into maintenance action and, potentially, lead to more efficient maintenance practices and procedures, improved operational availability, and cost savings associated with smaller logistics footprints. For many Rotorcraft Dynamic Components, which have been designed and qualified using a safe-life approach, Condition Based Maintenance could result in maintenance action based on historical data of actual removal causes, since most dynamic components are removed from service before the derived retirement time. The purpose of the effort described herein is to outline an approach to address the actual failure modes of aircraft dynamic components in order to achieve a longer effective useful life.