Exterior aircraft light

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9777903-B2
Application number	US-201514980544-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 28, 2015
Priority date	Jan 2, 2015
Publication date	Oct 3, 2017
Grant date	Oct 3, 2017

Abstract

An exterior aircraft light includes a base plate and a plurality of lighting units arranged on the base plate, wherein each of the plurality of lighting units includes an elongated LED light source for emitting light, the elongated LED light source having a light emitting surface with a longitudinal extension and a transverse extension, with the longitudinal extension being greater than the transverse extension and with a projection of the longitudinal extension onto the base plate defining an orientation direction of the elongated LED light source, and a collimating optical system for collimating the light emitted by the elongated LED light source towards a main output direction, wherein the plurality of lighting units has at least a first lighting unit and a second lighting unit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An exterior aircraft light, comprising a base plate and a plurality of lighting units arranged on the base plate,
wherein each of the plurality of lighting units comprises:
an elongated LED light source for emitting light, the elongated LED light source having a light emitting surface with a longitudinal extension and a transverse extension, with the longitudinal extension being greater than the transverse extension and with a projection of the longitudinal extension onto the base plate defining an orientation direction of the elongated LED light source, and
a collimating optical system for collimating the light emitted by the elongated LED light source towards a main output direction,

wherein the plurality of lighting units comprises at least a first lighting unit and a second lighting unit, with the orientation direction of the elongated LED light source of the first lighting unit and the orientation direction of the elongated LED light source of the second lighting unit being angled with respect to each other and with the main output direction of the first lighting unit and the main output direction of the second lighting unit being substantially parallel.

2. An exterior aircraft light according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of lighting units comprises at least 7 lighting units.

3. An exterior aircraft light according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of lighting units consists of one of 7, 12, 14, 19, 27, 30, 33, 37, and 61 lighting units.

4. An exterior aircraft light according to claim 1 , wherein at least 50% of the lighting units, have orientation directions of the elongated light sources that are angled with respect to each other.

5. An exterior aircraft light according to claim 4 ,
wherein the orientation directions of the elongated light sources of said at least 50% of the lighting units, are angled at more than 5° with respect to each other, and/or
wherein the plurality of lighting units consists of n lighting units and wherein the orientation directions of the elongated light sources of said at least 50% of the lighting units of the lighting units, are angled at more than 360°/2n with respect to each other.

6. An exterior aircraft light according to claim 1 , wherein at least 80% of the lighting units, have orientation directions of the elongated light sources that are angled with respect to each other.

7. Exterior aircraft light according to claim 6 ,
wherein the orientation directions of the elongated light sources of said at least 50% of the lighting units, are angled at more than 5° with respect to each other, and/or
wherein the plurality of lighting units consists of n lighting units and wherein the orientation directions of the elongated light sources of said at least 50% of the lighting units of the lighting units, are angled at more than 360°/2n with respect to each other.

8. An exterior aircraft light according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of lighting units consists of n lighting units and wherein the orientation directions of the n lighting units are angled at respective angles α k with respect to a reference direction on the base plate, with
(360 °/n )* k −( d *(360 °/n ))≦α k ≦(360 °/n )* k +( d *(360 °/n )),

with k being between 1 and n and with d being between 0 and 0.2.

9. An exterior aircraft light according to claim 1 , wherein the main output directions of any two of the plurality of lighting units enclose an angle of less than 10°, in particular of less than 5°.

10. An exterior aircraft light according to claim 1 , wherein the elongated LED light source of each of the plurality of lighting units comprises a plurality of LEDs, arranged in a line configuration.

11. An exterior Exterior aircraft light according to claim 1 , wherein the collimating optical system of each of the plurality of lighting units comprises:
a parabolic reflector and a collimating lens, with the light from the respective elongated LED light source being partially collimated by the parabolic reflector and partially collimated by the collimating lens.

12. An exterior aircraft light according to claim 1 , wherein a focal point of the collimating optical system of each of the plurality of lighting units is positioned on the light emitting surface of the respective elongated LED light source.

13. An exterior aircraft light according to claim 12 , wherein the elongated LED light source of each of the plurality of lighting units comprises an odd number of LEDs, arranged in a line configuration, with a respective center LED of the odd number of LEDs being positioned in the focal point of the respective collimating optical system.

14. An exterior aircraft light according to claim 1 , wherein an output light intensity distribution of the exterior aircraft light has a principal light output direction and wherein the output light intensity distribution is a monotonically decreasing light intensity distribution around the principal light output direction.

15. An exterior aircraft light according to claim 1 , wherein an output light intensity distribution of the exterior aircraft light is a rotationally symmetric light intensity distribution.

16. An exterior aircraft light according to claim 1 , wherein the exterior aircraft light is an aircraft headlight, such as an air plane landing light, an air plane take off light, an air plane taxi light, an air plane runway turnoff light, and a rotorcraft search light.

17. An aircraft comprising at least one exterior aircraft light according to claim 1 .

Assignees

• Goodrich Lighting Systems Gmbh

Inventors

• Jha Anil Kumar
• Hessling-Von Heimendahl Andre

Classifications

• F21V5/048 Primary

  the lens being a simple lens adapted to cooperate with a point-like source for emitting mainly in one direction and having an axis coincident with the main light transmission direction, e.g. convergent or divergent lenses, plano-concave or plano-convex lenses · CPC title

• F21S41/151

  arranged in one or more lines · CPC title

• F21S41/153

  arranged in a matrix · CPC title

• B64D2203/00

  Aircraft or airfield lights using LEDs · CPC title

• F21S41/141

  Light emitting diodes [LED] · CPC title