In my wandering through various stores I try to be alert
to un-conventional opportunities to apply technology from
other disiplines to airplanes. I have a couple of items
to bring to the attention of my airplane building brothers:
There's an automotive headlamp used on 96 Olds Cutlass
cars that has a very low vertical profile. It's a
halogen lamp totally contained inside a sealed
refelector/lens assembly. It also features a real
connector on the rear for attaching wires. You can
take a peek at one of these lamps at:
<http://www.aeroelectric.com/4352.jpg>
This is a 4352 high beam headlamp assembly. I believe
it's a 55 watt unit but I've not chased down the engineering
data sheets on it. I belive this lamp is an excellent
candidate for leading edge installation on airplanes. It's
rated life should be in excess of 300 hours. While low
in watts, it's a modern automotive design suited to
illuminating the path in front of 65 mph vehicles,
I suspect it's suitable also for landing airplanes at
that speed.
If there's enough interest in this lamp, I could CAD
up a bezel, mouting ring and backplate wiht 4-point
adjuster screws for aiming. I've got access to an NC
machine shop that would give us a pretty good rate on
VERY precisly carved pieces of aluminum.
Saw another interesting lamp. I think it's used in accent
lighting in stores. They have a variety of tracklites
that run on low voltage a.c. The EXH lamp can be
seen at
<http://www.aeroelectric.com/exh.jpg>
This tiny spot light is also 50 watt. It's a halogen
lamp and features a built in reflector. It may be
useful on smaller airplanes with PM alternators.
We've all seen cars on the highway with the new low
temperature discharge lamps . . . the color temperature
of these lamps is up around 4500K (blue white) and they
feature about 3x the light for 2/3 the watts. You can
see some info on these lamps at:
http://www.sylvania.com/prodinfo/auto/arcspecs.htm
Haven't put my hands on one of these yet but given
their size and efficiency, they're attractive for aircraft
applications too.
Dee and I will be attending the RV gathering in Red Wing
MN next weekend. Also, we have a weekend seminar coming
up in Livermore, CA May 16-17. Come see us at either
of these gatherings if you can.
Bob . . .
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