DefinePK

Abstract

The ground and flight tests play a crucial role during proto-vehicle development for any fighter aircraft development program. The objectives of the prototype testing are to assess the aircraft's mission capability in a phased manner. The observations from the field trials are of immense value. In addition to the aircraft performance assessment, the data from field trials facilitate in assessing the Reliability and Maintainability (R and M) of various aircraft components at system level and optimize the maintenance procedures to reduce Turn around Time (TAT). The fleet of proto-vehicles meant for field trials undergoes frequent change in Standard of Preparation (SOP), leading to update of maintenance procedures. This poses a great challenge for the planning of aircraft maintenance activities. This paper brings out a conceptual model of Computerized Aircraft Maintenance Management System (CAMMS), which is relevant to the typical military aircraft flight testing and servicing activities during prototyping and certification phase. An enterprise-wide CAMMS based on Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) would act as a digital thread between designers, maintenance planners, flight test engineers, inspectors and certification agency. CAMMS would enable to track various Line Replaceable Units (LRUs), which constitute of various electro mechanical systems, across various aircraft at fleet level with details such as shelf life, calendar life, maintenance schedule, Pre-Installation (PI) checks, serial part number etc. In addition, maintenance and service documents such as Flight Safety Certificate, LRU log cards, maintenance due list etc. could be generated using CAMMS. CAMMS in association with Failure Reporting Analysis and Corrective Action System (FRACAS) will offer a framework for repair and maintenance studies that can be extended to Performance Based Logistics (PBL) in future.