Aircraft use various external lights in order to provide functional illumination as well as positional indication. For example, the front lights of an aircraft are used primarily for illumination purposes while the lights on the wing tips and the tail are used primarily to indicate the location of the various aircraft components. Such external lights, for example, the tail light, experience substantial vibrational loading during aircraft operation. This causes a substantially high failure rate in prior art external lights employing incandescent type bulbs due to the fragility of the filament. Consequently, the external tail light is typically replaced about every ten (10) days. This periodic replacement of the external light is expensive both in terms of the replacement bulb cost and the labor cost associated with the bulb replacement. Therefore there is a need in the art for a more reliable external light for aircraft.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds