Honeywell Aerospace recently signed a distributorship agreement - the first of its kind in the Middle East - with Transworld Aviation (TWA) in Dubai to distribute its line of Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) across the Middle East markets.

The partnership agreement with TWA, one of the largest distributors of aviation-related products and services in the region for over 19 years, ensures that Honeywell’s defense and commercial helicopter operators in theMiddle East will benefit from decreased maintenance costs, increased availability and quicker turnaround on orders, technical support and parts delivery.

HUMS is a condition-based maintenance (CBM) system that monitors the health and usage of an aircraft’s drivetrain to addresses any maintenance and safety problems. The system increases availability for flight planners, enhances logistics for maintenance and inventory managers,andenables strategic planners to decide on fleet availability and cost containment measures.

HUMS continuously checks aircraft health and usage by monitoring vibrations at numerous points throughout the drivetrain to pinpoint mechanical faults. Monitoring up to 36 different elements, it identifies signs of stress and fatigue before they become serious issues.

The system stores data on any faults,allowing operators to make informed maintenance decisions. This is particularly valuable for helicopters operating within the Middle East where the stress on drivetrains can be exacerbated due to the region’s hot, sandy and dusty conditions.

Honeywell’s health and usage monitoring systems have been used on thousands of commercial rotorcraft including a wide variety of platforms from AgustaWestland, Sikorsky, Bell Helicopter, Eurocopter and MD Helicopters. Honeywell’s HUMS products have helped U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopters reduce mission aborts by 30%, maintenance test flights by 20% and scheduled maintenance by 5 to 10%.

As part of the new agreement, Transworld Aviation will offer operators Honeywell’s Zing HUMS 1100/1200/1400 series.TWA is ideally suited as Honeywell’s distributor of choice with its long-standing experience insupplying aircraft parts within the UAE.

“This partnership, which is the first HUMS agreement in the region, is another way of expanding our comittment. Through the TWA partnership Middle Eastern customers will benefit from shorter lead times on HUMS orders and maintenance services with local expertise and after-sales support readily available,” said Anthony Azar, Regional Director, Honeywell Aerospace.

“Honeywell’s HUMS technology sets the benchmark for usage monitoring systems.This distribution agreement will allow operators suffering from the Middle East’s high temperatures and dusty, sandy conditions the ability to prevent environment-related and other faults before they become serious and costly failures. The experience and know-how of TWA staff in HUMS products and aircraft vibrations, and our proximity to customers,will ensure a high level of service,” said Khamas H. Al Sulaimani, Director Log & Ops, Transworld Aviation FZE.