Integrated blade tip lighting system for rotorcraft

Aircraft have a variety of lights for collision avoidance and craft-orientation signaling. Rotorcraft are typically affixed with navigation lights on (or near) their main body. This reduces observable distance, and invites obstruction by the body and/or externally-mounted equipment. One obvious solution to is to mount lights at the tip of the rotor"s blades. Synchronizing these lights with respect to the body"s frame of reference creates the illusion of fixed lights. Many approaches have been postulated to accomplish this, but they have not resulted in practical implementations. Diversified Technologies, Inc. (DTI) proposes to build on its existing helicopter blade technology to develop a blade-mounted lighting module which is self powered, and receives information from an off-rotor antenna. In Phase I, DTI (Diversified Technologies, Inc.) will design and realistically test a blade-mounted module, along with the wireless hardware for communicating to it. In Phase II, DTI will further refine its design, and it will test a rugged production-grade article in a spin pit and on an airborne platform. Phase III will be focused on deploying production systems onto a variety of military and civilian crafts, targeting both the retrofit and new-design segments.