Honeywell is at Heli-Expo 2006 (Booth No. 1907) with announcements that its enhanced VXP health and usage monitoring system (HUMS) for rotorcraft will be installed on an operator’s Boeing helicopter fleet and available as an OEM option on the Eurocopter EC 135.

Columbia Helicopters, of Portland, Ore., has begun an STC program to apply the VXP system to its current fleet of 22 Boeing Model 234 and BV 107 machines, commercial versions of the military CH-47 and CH-46. So far, Columbia Helicopters (Booth No. 1469) has been demonstrating the capability of Honeywell’s tandem rotor track and balance monitoring system. Later, it expects to implement a plan to permanently install HUMS equipment on the aircraft with newly developed additional system and parameter monitoring.

“The VXP will allow the customer to record, monitor and diagnose data from numerous sensors, all in one box, without the need for additional equipment,” said Qua Le, Honeywell HUMS product development manager.

“The advanced algorithm we’ve developed will allow us to accomplish the [rotor track and balancing] task within two flights, much more efficiently than competitive systems,” he added.

The Columbia Helicopters STC is anticipated to expand VXP functions to include capturing engine exceedance and usage, flight operation data and trends. The VXP system includes a data-acquisition unit that can calculate specific maintenance solutions.