Formation light
Aircraft lighting for formation flying
A formation light, also known as a slime light, is a type of thin film electroluminescent light that assists aircraft flying in formation in low visibility environments.
01History
Different designs of formation lights were studied in March 1955 by Charles A. Baker at the Wright Air Development Center.
While navigation lights had previously been implemented on aircraft such as the P-40 Warhawk, Baker sought to improve on aircraft visibility after a series of collisions. The navigation lights in use at the time were found to be inadequate. The study tested point lights, floodlights, and linear lights, the last of which were "enthusiastically supported by experienced pilots".
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Formation light”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- F35 Lighting II Aerial Refuel 160621-M-CK339-056.jpg by Lance Cpl. Jeremy Laboy, Public domain
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