Big Data Simplifying HUMS For Helicopters

For the operators of large helicopters, the principle of big data is nothing new. For years, these companies and their associated MRO operations have been collecting and analyzing vibration data from onboard health and usage monitoring systems (HUMS), looking for potential issues within an aircraft's dynamic systems as well as clues to potential maintenance problems. However, in the current era of analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms, new uses for the data coming off the helicopters are being enabled and helping to democratize the use of systems like HUMS. "Today in the helicopter world, a lot of things are being done in the maintenance world as they would have been 40-50 years ago," says Matthieu Louvot, executive vice president for customer support and services at Airbus Helicopters. "Now is the time to digitize."