FLEET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR AN ADVANCED HELICOPTER PLATFORM - DESIGN DEVELOPMENT REQUIREMENTS

摘要

The investigated advanced defence helicopter fleet will be undergoing a major acquisition process including upgrade under a 20+ year strategic plan. This program develops aims to rationalise the number of helicopter types operated, simplify operational requirements and reduce through life support costs. The helicopter fleet presently comprises of nine helicopter types, to be grouped to three to four fundamental types. A fleet management methodology needs to be developed and modelled for each fundamental type of helicopter. This research will assess current practices in aerospace technology management of military aircraft fleets and establish requirements for both, civil and military rotary-wing platforms and design a specific methodology for the fundamental Multi-Role Helicopter (MRH, NH-90) of the defence forces. The outcome will be a technology management methodology, demonstrated through simulation for application on the MRH.The research studied the present and future fleet of the operators to establish the helicopter fleet needs, operational doctrines and logistic support requirements. It adopts a systems approach to develop the fleet management methodology for application on the MRH platform within a technology management environment. The fleet management system was considered as the total system and the MRH and its support infrastructure were located at the lower levels of the hierarchy. Establishing a systems concept of the various hierarchy levels identified the attributes and relationships of the system components.Presently, the research is analysing the FMS technology status of current civil and military rotorcraft platforms for stipulating the design requirements of a FMS methodology and simulation model. The methodology under development will be subsequently integrated into a software tool (task in progress) to provide helicopter fleet availability parameters, infrastructure support requirements and assist in maintenance planning to increase operational effectiveness. A system dynamic model is designed and developed to provide quantitative results. These results assist in the evaluation & optimisation of the methodology and demonstrate the applicability on the MRH platform.