aTEDS: airborne turbine engine diagnostic system

There is a significant need for technologies that improve flight safety and reduce maintenance and support costs for aircraft turbine engines. The C17 aircraft is being used extensively in the fight against terror in Iraq and other parts of the world. Engines are being stressed with both high operation temperatures and a severe short take off and landing environment. The current C17/F117 engines do not have an engine vibration monitoring system. If high vibration conditions occur the flight crew cannot easily identify the problem engine. IAC is developing an airborne turbine engine diagnostics system (aTEDS) for the C17/F117 engine. aTEDS is designed to automatically collect, process, and monitor vibration data collected from the F117 engine. In addition to the on-board system aTEDS includes a laptop PC ground based diagnostic system to aid in data collection, visualization, analysis and fault isolation. The description of the aTEDS system and preliminary results from collection and processing of T1 C17 flight data is presented in this paper.