Aircraft Navigation Lighting Sequential Actuation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Military aircraft navigation lighting systems face complexity in wiring due to the need for additional control lines and are sensitive to electromagnetic interference, making them challenging to modernize and maintain electromagnetic compatibility.
Innovation Solution
A navigation lighting device with multiple navigation light units, a power supply unit, and a central actuation unit that uses time-delay elements to sequentially actuate lights in predetermined sequences, ensuring all lights are activated simultaneously despite temporal offsets, reducing electromagnetic interference and simplifying modernization efforts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If additional control lines are used to operate navigation lighting in multiple modes, then the navigation lighting can be operated in several modes of operation, but the wiring complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the control function with the power supply function by using the existing power supply lines to transmit both power and control signals. The control signals are superimposed on the power supply lines, eliminating the need for separate control lines and reducing wiring complexity while maintaining multiple operational modes.
Solution Approach 2:
The power supply lines are designed to serve dual purposes: providing electrical power to the navigation lights and transmitting control signals for mode selection. This multi-functional use of existing infrastructure avoids additional wiring while enabling versatile operation.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If navigation lighting is actuated via power supply bus in coded form, then electromagnetic compatibility is improved, but the actuation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the power supply network itself to carry control information in coded form. By modulating the power supply signal or using specific coding patterns on the power lines, the system achieves electromagnetic compatibility without requiring separate complex control infrastructure.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If navigation light units are actuated sequentially with time offset, then electromagnetic interference is reduced, but the activation time varies across units
Solution Approach 1:
The control system pre-calculates and pre-configures the time offsets for each navigation light unit based on their positions in the actuation sequence. Each unit is programmed with its specific delay value before operation, allowing the central control to issue a single coordinated command that results in synchronized appearance despite sequential activation.
Data Source
AI summary
The navigation lighting device for an aircraft, in particular a military aircraft and preferably a fighter aircraft is provided with several navigation light units with navigation lights, a power supply unit for the navigation tight units, and a central actuation unit for the actuation of the navigation light units in each one of several modes of operation. The navigation light units can be actuated for operation in a mode of operation by the central actuation unit sequentially in a predetermined sequence and thus with a time offset. Each navigation light unit comprises a control unit connected to the actuation unit for the actuation of its navigation light in the operation mode predetermined by the central actuation unit. The control units of the navigation light units comprise time-delay elements for the temporal delay of the actuation of the navigation lights on the receipt of an actuation signal of the central actuation unit.