10 February 2003

Dallas, TX - The Smiths Aerospace generic health and usage management system (GenHUMS), fitted on the UK Chinook Mk2/2A fleet, has successfully completed the in-service reliability demonstration program for the airborne hardware. The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has confirmed that the installed system has proven its reliability in excess of requirement. This is an important milestone and demonstrates the reliability of Smiths Generic HUMS, which is also to be fitted to the MoD Sea King, Lynx and Puma fleets. The demonstration took place on aircraft based at RAF Odiham. The GenHUMS is developed at Smiths facilities in Southampton, UK and Grand Rapids, MI USA.

About the In-Service Reliability Demonstration

Thirty-nine aircraft took part in the demonstration and a total of 11,855 flying hours were accumulated during the trial period. The contract required two targets to be achieved, an MTBF (mean time between failure) covering airborne system LRUs / LRIs, and an MTBSF (mean time between system failure) covering failure of the airborne system. The HUMS achieved more than twice the required target for the MTBF and there were no MTBSF failures. The in-service reliability demonstration set an original target of 18 months to accumulate the 9,900 flying hours for the trial. The target flying hours was achieved within the first ten months of the demonstration.

About the Health and Usage Management System

The Smiths HUMS capability, which has been developed and proven in over 1 million flight hours of operation, offers both improved safety and reduced operating costs and can be readily configured for a variety of helicopter platforms. The HUMS continuously monitors the performance of safety-critical components, providing advance warning of potential equipment failures and collecting data for routine maintenance. HUMS sensors monitor the health and usage of the engines, transmission, drivetrain system, rotor system and airframe by detecting & diagnosing potential failures, recording usage, automating test procedures and providing alerts for potential maintenance actions.