Healthy UH-60 Choppers

Goodrich has received a contract from the U.S. Army to provide up to 1,000 Vehicle Health Management Systems (VHMS) for UH-60A/L Black Hawk helicopters. The five-year contract is potentially valued at up to $300 million and covers deliveries through 2013. The VHMS will be produced by Goodrich's Sensors and Integrated Systems operations in Vergennes, VT. The VHMS monitors the entire helicopter mechanical drive train from the engines to the rotor system, flight manual exceedances, and hundreds of aircraft system signals. The system also includes a cockpit voice flight data recorder and crash survivable memory unit. Advanced information provided by VHMS alerts operators to take preventative maintenance steps that avoid collateral damage and more costly future repairs.