Communications: electrical – Aircraft alarm or indicating systems – Land-based landing guidance
Patent
1991-04-29
1993-09-07
Swarthout, Brent A.
Communications: electrical
Aircraft alarm or indicating systems
Land-based landing guidance
315130, 340642, 340933, 340947, G08G 500
Patent
active
052433404
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a method and a plant for supervising and controlling field lighting at an airport, and which optionally include presence detectors.
The traditional implementation of a system for field lights is as follows.
High-intensive and low-intensive lightings along approach paths, runways and taxiways are supplied from one or more supply points, so-called cabinets or stations situated in the airport field, usually two for a field with one runway. These supply points are fed with high voltage unregulated electricity which is transformed down to 380/320 V and the supply points contain regulator equipment, thyristor or transducer regulators or regulating transformers for converting the unregulated electricity into controlled, regulated electric power for supplying the light units, which takes place via several power supply loops. Supply takes place in two principally different ways, i.e. by series of parallel feed to the lightings. Each lighting is provided with a transformer for retransforming the electricity to a suitable low voltage for supplying the lighting with power, in addition, the supply points also contain a supervisory system which monitors the status of the field lighting plant, e.g. such as to ensure that a sufficiently large number of light units function, that the intensity of the light units is correct, etc. The supply points, i.e. the cabinets, communicate via a communication link, inter alia with the traffic control tower supervising and operating panel, from which the regulating and supervisory systems are controlled, and at which information from the systems is received. This communication takes place via separate wire pairs for each function, or with time multiplex transmission on wires or optical fibers.
The object of the present invention is to present a new method for supervising and controlling field lighting, and to provide a new field lighting plant, where each individual lighting is addressable and includes a communicating local regulator and a monitoring unit for supplying power to, and monitoring the lighting. Thus each lighting or subsystem of lightings can be controlled individually, irrespective of the sections into which the power cabling is divided.
Furthermore, the invention enables a pressure indication system for detecting vehicle and aircraft movements on the ground to be integrated in the field lighting system implemented in accordance with the present invention.
Communication between the traffic control tower supervision and operating panel takes place via a central computer to a so-called concentrator and loop computer. The communication signals can be in the form of time multiplexed electrical or optical signals on signal cables or optical fiber cables.
A plurality of advantages are achieved by the present invention compared with the already known state of the airport lighting art.
In the implementation of a traditional field lighting system, the different power supply loops are fed via a regulator centrally connected to each loop for regulating the intensity of the lightings connected to the loop. For reasons of safety, the different lighting configurations such as approach lighting, runway edge lighting, glidepath beacons, threshold lighting and taxiway lighting must be fed by several loops in case there should be a regulator or cable fault. A large number of centrally placed regulators are therefore required for controlling the field lighting system, and these occupy large spaces which must often be specially built. With the present invention, on the other hand, each lighting is provided with a local regulator which is placed at the light fitting or in a so-called fitting well associated therewith. At the supply point there will only be a so-called concentrator, sling computer, contactor and modem. This results in less voluminous equipment, which gives savings in space and cost compared with the implementation carried out in a conventional way. In addition, the necessary redundance is obtained automatically with the method of implementation
REFERENCES:
patent: 3715741 (1973-02-01), McWade et al.
patent: 3819980 (1974-06-01), Mullersman
patent: 4216413 (1980-08-01), Plas
patent: 4418333 (1983-11-01), Schwarzbach et al.
patent: 4481516 (1984-11-01), Michelotti
patent: 4590471 (1986-05-01), Pieroway et al.
patent: 4646088 (1987-02-01), Inoue
patent: 4951046 (1990-08-01), Lambert et al.
"At the Crossroads in Air-Traffic Control", IEEE Spectrum, Jul. 1970, pp. 69-83, Gordon Friedlander.
Backstrom Goran
Millagard Lars
Norman Rolf
Airport Technology in Scandinavia AB
Swarthout Brent A.
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