Marconi Avionics Portsmouth has installed a new Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) on board the latest Sikorsky S-76C+ helicopter used by the British Royal family.
The system was installed by Sikorsky at its West Palm Beach, Florida facility for Air Hanson which operates Royal Household helicopter services.
HUMS will provide a significant increase in system monitoring capability and reduce the cost of operations for the aircraft by providing a detailed view of operating systems performance and status. The Marconi Avionics HUMS is the only system currently available fully certified for use on the S-76C+.
The Marconi Avionics system has already been in use for many years on helicopters operating in the North Sea, Far East, Australia and South Africa. In these hostile operating environments the system is able to provide warnings of potential serious aircraft failures, which can be investigated and corrected prior to subsequent flights.
Major oil companies now insist that HUMS is installed on all helicopters supporting their oil exploration and production platforms.
The Marconi Avionics team in Portsmouth is confident that this latest programme will lead to further orders for HUMS from other helicopter owners or users.
Source: Flight Daily News
