Volume 10, Number 2 • March/April 2002 • Aerospace Technology Development

Keeping Aircraft Healthy

Langley Research CenterŐs B-757 test aircraft was used to perform a ground demonstration of an integrated onboard health management system. Photo courtesy of Langley Research Center.

Imagine a system onboard an aircraft that can tell when a system on the aircraft is developing the symptoms of a failure. The safety of that aircraft would be greatly increased, and the maintenance required would only be performed when necessary.

NASA Langley Research Center, in conjunction with ARINC, has developed such a system—the Aircraft Condition Analysis and Management System (ACAMS).

In July 2001, ARINC and a team from Langley performed a ground demonstration of this integrated onboard health management system. In this demonstration, intentional faults were injected into recorded flight data from the NASA Boeing 757 aircraft while running in real-time simulation and being processed through ACAMS. The ACAMS logic successfully identified the faults and provided an assessment of the impact on continued airworthiness of the aircraft prior to the conditions resulting in critical failure levels.

As NASA continues to work with ARINC, this team will refine ACAMS to meet diagnostic and prognostic objectives for landing gear and airframe-related systems, and prepare for more robust demonstrations to external NASA customers in FY 2002. A flight test of ACAMS is also planned for the FY 2003 timeframe. In addition to testing, NASA and ARINC hope to integrate ACAMS with ongoing propulsion system health management research and development activities. Q

For more information, contact John White at Langley Research Center, j.j.white@larc.nasa.gov. Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

NASA Official: Jonathan Root • Web Design: Printing & Design Office, NASA Headquarters • Credits