Aiming at the irregularity of the fault characteristics of the helicopter main reducer planetary gear, a fault diagnosis method based on support vector data description (SVDD) is proposed. The working condition of the helicopter is complex and changeable, and the fault characteristics of the planetary gear also show irregularity with the change of working conditions. It is impossible to diagnose the fault by the regularity of a single fault feature; so a method of SVDD based on Gaussian kernel function is used. By connecting the energy characteristics and fault characteristics of the helicopter main reducer running state signal and performing vector quantization, the planetary gear of the helicopter main reducer is characterized, and simultaneously couple the multi-channel information, which can accurately characterize the operational state of the planetary gear’s state.