Foresight MX HUMS approved for UH-60A

The company announced that it received a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) from the US Federal Aviation Administration on 8 February.

GPMS worked closely with operator PJ Helicopters throughout the STC process – the company will benefit by becoming the first Black Hawk operator to employ Foresight MX in its aircraft.

“Platforms like the UH-60 have a long and storied career in transporting troops and equipment around the world,” said Todd Powers, GPMS’s Vice President of Sales. “Typically, the older variants either weren’t equipped with HUMS or had equipment that weighed over a hundred pounds.

However, he added that even in more modern aircraft that have been decommissioned from military service, ‘military aircraft are typically stripped of accessories through divestiture because of ITAR, obsolescence, and weight concerns.’

Powers explained that the approval of Foresight MX meant that ‘UH-60 operators now have a … next generation, predictive HUMS, flight data monitoring and rotor track and balance (RTB) solution – at an installed weight of under 17lb (7.7kg)’.

PJ Helicopters’ Director of Operations, David McCammon added: “Lives and homes are at stake during fire season and our customers, friends, and family depend on us. Our 11 UH-60As are extremely capable machines, and their ability to assist in controlling fires is only limited by their availability. With Foresight MX, we have a HUMS solution that meets Multiple Award Task Order Contract (MATOC) requirements, lowers our direct operating costs, and will help keep these aircraft in the air.”

He added that the predictive maintenance technology was helpful in managing supply chain issues, as ‘gaining the capability to understand the true condition and health of our components is vital,’ allowing his company to ‘better forecast our inventory needs [and] align maintenance planning’.