Aircraft have a variety of lights for collision avoidance and craft-orientation signaling. Rotorcraft are typically affixed with navigation lights on (or near) their main body. This reduces observable distance, and invites obstruction by the body and/or externally-mounted equipment. One obvious solution to is to mount lights at the tip of the rotors blades. Synchronizing these lights with respect to the bodys frame of reference creates the illusion of fixed lights. Many approaches have been postulated to accomplish this, but they have not resulted in practical implementations. Diversified Technologies, Inc. (DTI) proposes to build on its existing helicopter blade technology to develop a blade-mounted lighting module which is self powered, and receives information from an off-rotor antenna. In Phase I, DTI (Diversified Technologies, Inc.) will design and realistically test a blade-mounted module, along with the wireless hardware for communicating to it. In Phase II, DTI will further refine its design, and it will test a rugged production-grade article in a spin pit and on an airborne platform. Phase III will be focused on deploying production systems onto a variety of military and civilian crafts, targeting both the retrofit and new-design segments.
Benefit: The major benefit of this technology will be increased safety for military and civilian rotorcraft, as a result of higher nighttime visibility, and longer visual detection distances. For military rotorcraft, this safety will be augmented in combat formations through the use of near infrared lights, allowing high visibility of other aircraft (through night vision equipment) during stealth operations. Similarly, the major markets for this technology in Phase III will be existing military commercial rotorcraft.
Keywords: Rotorcraft, Rotorcraft, helicopter, Rotors, flicker, aircraft lighting, Blades
