Mission Impact and Readiness Assessment Tool for Critical Transmission Assemblies Navy SBIR FY2009.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2009.1 Topic No.: N091-017 Topic Title: Mission Impact and Readiness Assessment Tool for Critical Transmission Assemblies Proposal No.: N091-017-1115 Firm: Impact Technologies, LLC 200 Canal View Blvd Rochester, New York 14623-2851 Contact: Avinash Sarlashkar Phone: (585) 424-1990 Web Site: www.impact-tek.com Abstract: Impact Technologies with its OEM partner Boeing, proposes to use a combination of newly developed technologies and leverage existing technologies to develop a comprehensive software suite that will assist the Navy personnel in accurately and quickly assessing the impact of actual aircraft usage on critical transmission components and therefore, on overall reliability and mission readiness. It is not uncommon to have the aircraft experience the mission mix in actual use that is significantly different from the mission mix anticipated during the design stage. A different mission mix would therefore mean a potentially lower reliability and mission readiness at any given time. It is critical that tools are available than can accurately assess effects of such deviations on individual tail-number basis as well as at the fleet level. The innovations in this proposed effort will include: a) A graphical drag-and-drop system-level modeling tool to represent multiple failure modes for multiple components in complex transmission systems, b) Computation of individual component damage rates and therefore associated reliability using system level inputs such as the flight regime definitions, c) A reliability roll-up of different components in a "transmission chain" with due consideration to serial and parallel paths and interdependencies. Benefits: The V-22 Osprey is a multi-role combat aircraft that has been acquired by multiple branches of the DoD including the U. S. Marine Corps (requirement of 360 MV-22Bs), the U. S. Air Force Special Operations (requirement of at least 50 CV-22s) and the U. S. Navy (future requirement of 45 MV-22s). It is quite obvious that the number of V-22s will be approaching at least 450 in the foreseeable future and that these aircraft will be used in harsh desert environments such as Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, Marine Corps' first V-22 Squadron, VMM-263 ("Thunder Chickens") was deployed in Iraq in 2007. Given that these varied operational environments will result in different temperatures, loads, and other factors that thus induce additional life-limiting failure modes, it is imperative that a comprehensive software suite be developed that will facilitate accurate and fast assessment of critical transmission components and that it can communicate with Navy's existing aircraft life management infrastructure. The vision of the proposed effort is to generate a "platform neutral" transmission system modeling software that will be able to model rotorcraft other than V-22s, such as the Blackhawks and the Seahawks, the Chinooks etc. In fact, we anticipate that this software will be general enough to develop system level transmission train models for other fixed wing aircraft, for example, the lift-fan drive on the JSF. Return