Open Call for LED Technology Article for Aviators

I am posting this here and hopefully find a willing participant:

I have a dear friend who is owner and editor of an aviation magazine and newsletter called "Contact" magazine. It is geared towards Homebuilt and experimental Aviators. These folks build composite airplanes and put converted VW and Corvair engines in them and fly all over the place.

Pat wrote me and linked me to some banter on their forums about Luxeons, lEDs in general, and the possibility of developing LED landing lights and such.


Pat said the timing is right for an article on LED flashilights and LEDs. I was hoping one of you experts may want to step up to the plate and write this article. Here is what Pat had to say about the needed article:

"An introduction to high performance LEDs and Illumination tools"

As long as it keeps the interest of the experimental aviator with an engineering mentality, make it as long as you wish. I don't like to put constraints on my
contributors. I can make editorial cuts as needed for space, or I can alter the image size to either shorten to lengthen the article. I make all articles begin
at a page beginning, and end at a page end. This way I can move articles around
as needed. We do a compilation book every 5 years, and having the articles like this makes it easy to put the book together.

Thanks!Pat"

So who among you will write this piece? I am not looking for suggestions on an author-I am hunting down THE author-so please sign-on if you feel you have the LED Technology know-how and writing chops. It sounds like fun for the right person(s). Consider co-authorship too. Any help on this appreciated. I will link whom ever you may be directly with Pat Panzera for further discussions etc. Post here and or PM me.

Thanks,

Rich

Good luck on your article Rich! Of course, LEDs offer several advantages for aircraft including greater resistance to the extended vibration of the airframe, less power consumption for a slight range increase and increased safety from burned out bulbs.

Btw, did you know the F-15's are getting an LED upgrade for most of the external lighting? They will now also have an IR option so the plane can be seen with NVGs.

Peter

Peter-Thanks. I was going to give this piece a try myself, but have since bailed on the idea. I have some talents and they are not flashlight technology. Pilot? Yes. Flashlight Builder? No. I do adore great, modern illumination tools. I use them everyday.

So are you signing on? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Rich

Re: Open Call for LED Technology Article for Avia

Did you know there are thousands of aircraft that have LED backlighting behind the TFT LCD panel? How do I know? I designed them in. They are in various General Avaition aircraft, as well as Boeing 727, 737, 747, 757, 767.

Shots? Well the camera pixels interacted alot with the display, but here is a shot of what you'd typically see on one,

http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/at2000_5.jpg
http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/at2000_4.jpg
http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/at2000_3.jpg

A newer generation of this product also utilizes LEDs:
http://www.garmin.com/products/mx20/#

Re: Open Call for LED Technology Article for Avia

LEDs as landing lights... I think the time may not have come for such an application yet. But I what would I know? I always thought that landing lights had to be seriously bright, like in the range of a 100W halogen at least, since it would essentially be like the headlamps of a car. I don't think LEDs are there yet.

Re: Open Call for LED Technology Article for Avia

when Gransee mentioned exterior lights, I'm assuming he meant navigation lights, not the taxi light/landing light. The nav lights are the ones on the wingtips and tail. Many years ago, during my time with the Corps fixing planes, our aircraft were equipped with flourescent and incandescent nav lights (flourescent for bright, incandescent for dim).
The incandescent bulbs were always trouble. The contacts got corroded, the filaments broke, etc. It would be great to replace them with leds.
There's also the issue of interior lights too. Pilots need some way to see all the stuff in the cockpit, so leds would be a nice reliable light source. The ability to use red or white leds would be handy, as well as IR leds for the boys using night vision equipment.

Last but not least, all pilots are required, I believe, to carry an emergency flashlight on them. This would be another fine place for leds!

Steve K.

Re: Open Call for LED Technology Article for Avia

BTT