Opportunity Born From Innovation
In 2012, GPMS co-founders Eric Bechhoefer and Jack Taylor saw an opportunity: leverage advances in hardware and software and develop a new machine health monitoring system that could radically change the value equation for condition monitoring (or HUMS as it is known in the rotorcraft industry).
Bechhoefer and Taylor first met at Goodrich, now Collins Aerospace/Raytheon Technologies where they worked on the first generation of Health and Usage Monitoring Systems and developed a worldwide reputation in the field of machine prognostics, machine failure prevention, integrated vehicle health monitoring, and vibration analysis.
Our founders saw first hand the effect these digital tools could have on asset optimization, including fleet readiness, maintenance cost, and safety. For Bechhofer, a former naval aviator, these real world impacts of the technology were particularly important.
At the same time, they saw a category in need of innovation. Traditional HUMS were heavy and expensive and required effort to acquire and transfer data. In 2013, they published and presented a white paper to rethink HUMS for the light helicopter market. Using a bused onboard architecture, integrated WiFi/cellular, and the Cloud, Bechhoefer and Taylor removed these barriers. At the same time, through smart sensors and new predictive algorithms, they made the system radically more accurate and more valuable.
After an initial foray in the wind industry (which resulted in a system that has since logged over 18 million successful operating hours), Green Power Monitoring Systems transitioned to helicopters and adopted GPMS as its shortened moniker. In 2018, GPMS launched Foresight MX and in collaboration with Bell and launch customer, Duke Energy, secured its first STC – on the Bell 407.
Today, while GPMS applies its condition monitoring technology in both industrial and vehicular applications, its focus is on rotorcraft. The company formed a relationship with Bell to offer Foresight on the light single-engine 407 in late 2018. And in 2019, the company began working with eVTOL pioneer Beta Technologies. As our ‘connected aviation’ product and customer base expands, our mission remains the same: provide operators with actionable information to improve safety, increase availability, decrease maintenance costs, and demystify the tools needed to do so.