Do you have questions about ADB Products, airfield lighting, and happenings in the industry? Are you interested in topics covering reliability, efficiencies, solutions and much more? Ed Runyon, our Advanced Technology Specialist, will provide the answers to your questions and discuss the topics that impact your operations here in Ed's Corner. A technical forum of sorts, Ed's Corner is intended to benefit everyone involved in the airfield lighting industry - engineers, contractors and maintenance personnel are invited to participate.

Note: This is an update of the original article published in February 2006.

In the fall of 2002, LED airfield lighting products began appearing on taxiways around the world. These products emerged because a new class of a Light Emitting Diode (LED) light source had been developed. Initially, products were only available for elevated taxiway edge lighting applications. Next, products appeared for in-pavement taxiway centerline and obstruction lighting applications. Not long after, arctic kits were added to LED products for those airports where snow and ice are a concern. Research has now resulted in the certification of a number of airfield lighting products using the latest generation of high-brightness LEDs (HBLED). These ETL-certified LED products include: In-pavement Runway Centerline lights, Touchdown Zone lights, In-pavement Runway Guard Lights, and FAA L-858 signs.

Many questions have come up about various performance aspects of these HBLED products. This article aims to answer many of those questions.

I understand that Runway Centerline and Touchdown Zone fixtures are now ETL certified. Are they available in Style 3 for all applications? What are the electrical load requirements?

A key advantage of LED runway fixtures is that they eliminate the need to shut down the runway for lamp maintenance. The ADB Airfield Solutions FAA L-850A LED runway centerline fixture is available in white or red for uni- or bi-directional applications (see Figure A). The FAA L-850B LED Touchdown Zone fixture is available in white for uni-directional applications (see Figure B). Both fixtures are manufactured in a 12”, Style 3 (<1/4” high) aluminum housing.

According to FAA Advisory Circular 150/5340-30, the light output of Touchdown Zone fixtures must be toed 4° toward the runway centerline. The Advisory Circular also states that toeing can be achieved by either using an optical assembly toed 4°, or by angling the base can 4°. The ADB Airfield Solutions LED L-850B can be ordered toed right, toed left or straight. If necessary, the inner optical assembly may be field adjusted for any of the three positions. An advantage of installing base cans that are already toed is that all fixtures are ordered as straight. Otherwise, when ordering touchdown zone fixtures, it must be remembered to order half of the fixtures as toed left and half as toed right. Toeing the base cans also eliminates the need to open a fixture during maintenance if a certain toed option is not immediately available.

More . . .

This question and others answered in the updated LED article are:

• I understand that Runway Centerline and Touchdown Zone fixtures are now ETL certified. Are they available in Style 3 for all applications? What are the electrical load requirements?
• Will there be vibration issues when LED fixtures are installed on a runway?
• Will the LED Runway Centerline and Touchdown Zone fixtures operate on 5-step CCRs?
• Will the LED Runway Centerline and Touchdown Zone fixtures operate with any CCR architecture?
• How do the new LED L-858 signs operate?
• Are Runway Guard Lights available with LEDs?
• Can I substitute LED L-852G in-pavement runway guard lights for my incandescent L-852G fixtures?
• What other airfield lighting applications are now available with LED technology?