Runway Lights & Airport Lighting

Runway lights outline the runway so the pilot can see it at night and safely land the plane. In large airports, runway lighting is controlled by are controlled by the Air Traffic Tower. Lights are low, medium, or high intensity in order to work in both day and night and varying degrees of weather-related visibility.

There are several kinds of runway lights. Every one of them is extremely important to the ultimate success of locating the runway and landing the aircraft safely.

Approach Lights
These runway lights are actually a system of strobe lights and light bars that signal to the pilot where the beginning of the runway is located and where final approach should begin. ALS, or approach lighting systems, are used mostly in airports with instrument approach procedures. They help pilots line up aircraft with the runway.

These lights are vital to the safe landing of planes because distance and perspective are commonly distorted by the angle and speed of the plane. The ALS, using its white bars and flashing strobe lights, creates a field of clearly differentiated signals that work like visual cues for the pilot to use in lining up the plane for landing.

Centerline Lights
Centerline lights are recessed runway lights embedded in the surface of the tarmac itself. They are spaced 50 ft apart and run the entire length of the runway. They are white in color up until the last 3,000 feet, where they begin alternating between white and red. Then, for the last 1,000 ft, they are solid red.

Runway Edge lights
In airports that rely upon instrument approach procedures, the length of the runway is bordered by white elevated lights on both sides, while the last 2,000 feet of the runway is bordered by amber edge lights.

Touchdown Zone Lights
These runway lights show where the wheels of the plane need to touch down.

Runway End Identification Lights
These commercial lights assist the pilot in picking out the runway when it is surrounded by all other sorts of airport lighting and city lights. They also help distinguish the runway from surrounding terrain and increase its visibility in bad weather.

Lights at the end of the runway look red to a departing aircraft and green at the threshold the runway to approaching aircraft.

Taxiway Lights
These runway lights distinguish adjoining taxiways from the runway itself. Light types include taxiway centerline lead-off lights, taxiway centerline lead-on lights, and land and hold short lights.

RLLD Commercial Lighting provides an increasing number of LED and Solar Powered models of these Airport runway lights that are that are self-maintaining, energy efficient, and more reliable than traditional transformer-based lighting fixtures.

Many types of airport lights are becoming increasingly and more readily available in solar powered and LED form. Talk to an RLLD Commercial Lighting Designer about the availability and viability of these particular models for your particular application needs.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for contact us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and we will find it for you. Our GSA Advantage lighting home office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including Sault Ste Marie, MI (CIU), Cleveland, OH, (CLE), College Station, TX (CLL), Port Angeles, WA (CLM), Charlotte, NC (CLT), Columbus, OH (CMH), Champaign, IL (CMI), Hancock, MI (CMX), Cody, WY (COD) and Colorado Springs, CO (COS).

Airport Lights & Aviation Lighting

Every airport stands a rotating beacon that guides planes to the airports at night. As the pilot nears the airport, many different types of specialty airport lights then guide and direct the landing of the plane. These lights include runway lights, taxiway lights, obstruction lights, and lighted signs.

Most airport lights are intended to shine at different levels of intensity and are available in many different colors. The colors are significant and are very crucial to airport safety and operations. Some colors signify what type of airport a pilot is flying toward. For instance, green and white lights are used at civilian airports, whereas green and white flashing beacons are used for military bases. Yellow lights that then flash light are used to guide seaplanes.

Airport lights are most commonly are used between twilight and dawn. If daytime weather conditions become adverse, however, beacons will also be used to signal pilots that they need to use their instruments for landing and takeoff.

Here are a few of the many airport and aviation lights we offer:

• LED Elevated Lights
• Point Surface Floodlights & Perimeter Lights
• LED Heliport Lights
• LED Obstruction Lights
• LED Helideck Semiflush
• LED Flashing Beacons
• LED Rollover Lights

Runway lights are the most important type of airport lights. Blue lights mark the outline of the runway from the air. Green marks the approach end of the runway. Red lights show where the end of the runway is. In most airports, the lights that run along the sides of the end of the runway are white, but they gradually change to amber as you near the departure end. Recessed, or inset lights, are installed down the center line of the runway to show pilots where the middle of the runway is.

Just before you reach the runway, there is an area known as the threshold of approach that marks the location where the pilot must begin the final descent of the plane. Flashing strobe lights are used here to mark this critical junction. Air traffic controllers are in charge of controlling the strobe lights intensity. The highest luminance is set for times where the weather makes visibility very poor. In clear weather, the strobe light is much lower in brightness to avoid distracting the pilot during landing.

Airport signs are also vital to airport operations and safety. There are different types of unlighted and lighted signs. Direction, destination, and boundary signs feature a black legend on a yellow background. Mandatory instruction signs have of a white legend on a red background.

Again, we can see how color coding is used to mark vital areas of transit and boundary. The majority of taxiway and runway location signs, for instance, have yellow legend and a black background that makes them prominently visible. Taxiway ending marker lighted signs are yellow and black as well. One-half distance signs have a black background and a white legend.

Increasing numbers of airport lights are now being manufactured in solar powered and LED form. Talk to an RLLD Commercial Lighting Designer about the availability and workability of solar and LED models for your airport.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for call us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and we will find it for you.

Our home office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including Sault Ste Marie, MI (CIU), Cleveland, OH, (CLE), College Station, TX (CLL), Port Angeles, WA (CLM), Charlotte, NC (CLT), Columbus, OH (CMH), Champaign, IL (CMI), Hancock, MI (CMX), Cody, WY (COD) and Colorado Springs, CO (COS).