A Brief History into Aircraft Warning Light Advancements

At Delta Obstruction Lighting, we are known for our LED prowess. We manufacture and install innovative LED lighting warning systems around the world and we monitor over 30 telecommunication sites globally.

We explore the history behind the advancement of warning lights and how high powered LED aircraft warning lights is now the preferred solution.

aircraft warning light that shines red

Incandescent Light

Firstly, we had incandescent lights. These lights were cheap to purchase and easy to replace as they used a generic Edison screw, however, the problem with incandescent lights was the life span. They only had 5000 hours of life and required more maintenance therefore making it expensive to run. They are being phased out slowly.

Neon Ring Lamps

Neon Ring Lamps echo the same problem as incandescent lights – they have a short life span, but 5000 hours more than incandescent lights. But, they are not as easy to replace and are very bulky. The disadvantages do not stop there; they also contain potentially harmful gasses and do not work in extreme cold weather. The only benefits of Neon Ring Lamps was it remained cool whilst on.

First Issue LED

The advantages of LED’s have remained consistent e.g. the low energy consumption, resistant to large amount of vibrations, but as they are the first issue LEDs, they weren’t perfect. It produced light pollution and it was heavy due to the aluminium transformer heat sink required to cool the light as different intensity required different quantities of LED’s.

High Powered LED

Over the years, we innovated and designed what is  High Powered LED systems that comes with a range of benefits

  • Smaller cluster used to generate large light output
  • Create less heat therefore smaller heat sink and therefore making it lighter
  • Less light pollution
  • More cost efficient than first issue LED aircraft warning lights
  • 100,000 hours life span

As you can see the advancement in aircraft warning light technology has vastly improved the warning light systems for businesses that are more cost efficient and require less maintenance.

Delta Obstruction Lighting are specialist in Aircraft Warning Light Systems that save you time and money. If you have any questions, please contact us.