Leahy In Vergennes
Wednesday
To Announce Deployment In Iraq
Of Vermont-Produced Goodrich Product
That Is Making Helicopters Safer
… New $14 Million
Contract Secured By Leahy Boosts Production At Plant
VERGENNES, Vt.
(Wed., Dec 17) -- Visiting Goodrich Aerospace’s plant in Vergennes
on Wednesday, Senator Patrick Leahy announced that the U.S. Army’s
elite 101st Airborne Division is carrying out a wartime
demonstration in Mosul, Iraq, of a high-tech helicopter diagnostic
system built by Goodrich with funds Leahy has secured in the defense
budget. Leahy, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations
Committee, also announced that he has secured a new $14 million
contract with the U.S. Army for Goodrich’s further development of
the system.
Wednesday’s announcement means Goodrich now has
received $56 million in Leahy-secured contracts for the construction
and installation of Integrated Mechanical Diagnostic Health and
Usage Monitoring Systems (IMD-HUMS) in military helicopters.
“Senator Leahy's support to secure funding for
our IMD-HUMS programs is helping the Army and Marines fly with
better maintained helicopters and has been instrumental in
maintaining high technology jobs here in Vermont,” said Harry
Arnold, President of the Goodrich Fuel And Utility Systems
Division. “His continued support, year after year, has provided
significant employment stability to our business during the last few
years in which we have seen the commercial Aerospace market
decline.”
“Mechanical
failures and errors take a tragic toll among our soldiers, and we
should do all we can to prevent those deaths and injuries,” said
Leahy. “This technology will make mechanical failures less
frequent, while making our aircraft safer and more dependable.
Great skill and vision have gone into producing this system, and now
it has a chance to prove itself in the crucible of the battlefield.”
IMD-HUMS is a series
of wires, computer processors and cockpit displays allowing
helicopter aircrew and maintenance officers to determine whether
critical engine and rotor components are operating within safe
parameters. Along with rotor-balancing, the system detects trends
in wear and tear on critical components. The system allows
maintenance to be
performed when it is actually needed, instead of when an operator
might guess it is needed, allowing the U.S. military to move from a
so-called time-based maintenance mode to a more condition-based
maintenance mode, saving lives and shaving operational costs.
Leahy said half of
the $14 million contract secured in the Defense Department’s 2004
budget bill will be used for an intensive demonstration of the
system, which has now begun, on the helicopters of the U.S. Army’s
renowned 101st Airborne Division. The other $7 million
will be used by Goodrich to equip Navy helicopters with the system.
The demonstration
involves installing the system on 30 UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters of
the 101st Airborne Division currently carrying out
military operations in Northern Iraq. The division is part of the
Army’s elite 18th Airborne Corps, which has participated
in battles spanning from D-Day to Afghanistan. The unit’s intensive
assignments make it ideally suited to demonstrate, develop and
refine the IMD-HUMS system.
Initial results now
coming back from the 101st Airborne Division indicate
that IMD-HUMS is making the aircraft easier to maintain and fly.
Many of the pilots have said that the IMD-HUMS aircraft is one of
the smoothest aircraft they have ever flown. More importantly, the
pilots have begun to use the system as a diagnostic tool to examine
any in-flight problems.
The funding for the
Navy will pay for an ongoing effort to incorporate the IMD-HUMS
system on SH-60 Seahawk and CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters.
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