Bring all military aircraft under condition monitoring: Expert

BANGALORE, Oct 4:  Failure to adopt condition monitoring (CM) to maintain military aircraft has resulted in 40 per cent of the war planes being on ground and it is time the Armed Forces use modern methods of maintenance of the machines, Director General of DRDO (Aeronautics) K Tamilmani today said.

Speaking at the inauguration of a two-day national conference on Condition Monitoring, organised by Condition Monitoring Society of India (CMSI), he said out of 290 military aircraft, 40 per cent, valued at Rs 40,000 crore on the ground as testing methods were yet to improve.

Extending the life of an aircraft should be the focus that can save the country huge money while the country should develop embedded sensors, used extensively in CM, be developed indigenously.

CM helps determining the condition of a machine when it in running and predict possible breakdown in future. “Condition monitoring should be paramount on the minds of engineers maintaining the costly assets and make full use of it.

The current proportion of 60 per cent of the aircraft in flight ready condition should go up to 70 to 80 per cent and CM can answer that,” he said.

Dr Tamilmani said civil aviation has, however, adopted modern methods to maintain their aircraft air worthy upto 99 as it is need based and they maximise the use of the machines. The Armed Forces should take a cue from this and succeed in extending and maximising the utility of the machines, he said.

Mr P S Subramanyam, Director of ADA and in-charge of the development of LCA Tejas said the ADA had adopted CM while monitoring 2400 hrs of flight of Tejas and has the data.

“The challenge emerges on how to make best use of the data. We need to evolve a system where the data is utilised more in future applications. Now we have advanced from human system in engine monitoring to real time system,” he said.

To promote the use of the data collected using CM, the ADA had decided to make available the data to interested organisations to make better use of it.

“We are ready to reveal the details if someone is interested to make best use of it,” he said.

Integrated Vehicle Monitoring System will be mandatory shortly and the country’s aero engineers in armed forces should be ready to fully adopt CM.

CMSI President V Bhujanga Rao, who is also a distinguished scientist at DRDO’s Naval and Material Systems, said the country can save USD 750 million per annum if it produced its own signal processing and data management systems which are now fully imported.

He advocated setting up of centres for advances in research in CM in the country to cater to the needs such as Health monitoring of engines in FMBTss, AMCAS, 5th Generation aircraft — which the country was contemplating to take on.

He called upon the engineers to develop expertise in remote or web based CM which consists of real-time monitoring modules.

“This is how all Boeing civil aircraft engines are monitored while they are flying. Boeing 787 dream liner has comprehensive health check up technology embracing all functions,” he added.

(UNI)

 

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