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GTMR Lighting System
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Lighting System
Conventional aircraft lighting systems use comparatively heavy, inefficient and fragile tungsten lamps, requiring considerable electrical power
for good visibility, and frequent replacement. As a part of an earlier U.S. Air Force development program, GTMR’s John Piri participated
with others to develop a state-of-the-art LED lighting system for emergency recovery of Air Force equipment and personnel. The resulting system
uses microcomputer technology to provide high visibility lighting with high electrical-to-light conversion efficiency and very long operational
life. This "LiteTube" design has been proven to survive altitude to 70,000 feet, high shock environments, extended saltwater immersion,
and wide temperature extremes.
GTMR plans a co-development of a lighting system for DoD, federal, state and local government, and commercial markets that leverages
the same basic techniques used for these Air Force devices. The system will utilize high power LEDs with proprietary modulation schemes
to provide superior visibility, multifrequency operation, high efficiency, unique identification capability, and dramatically reduced
maintenance when compared to existing equipment.
The market is wide-reaching. Developed originally as a location device, it is a simple technical step to modify the system to replace current
position, orientation, anti-collision and formation lighting on aircraft, and expand the use of the system a functional IFF system due to the
modulation protocols across a range of visible or near-visible light spectra on military aircraft. It has direct commercial application to civil
and commercial aviation in the basic form.
Federal, state and local government markets include Homeland Security and the compendium of “first responders” including state and
local fire, police, paramedic, and similar emergency service. In situations where these vehicles are distributed geographically, it is possible
through the installation of a roof-mounted lighting system on each vehicle, to identify and locate each individual asset across a large
geographical area using indigenous airborne assets which are currently, almost universally, assigned to these organizations. The system would
integrate a discrete code identifier and GPS location device for each vehicle, with the output modulated through the lighting equipment. An
airborne asset could locate and identify these vehicles as any given situation develops, providing routing support to the vehicles, and advise
status and position of these assets to the ground based commander. With the addition of a translator methodology and simple simplex data link
onboard the airborne platform, the on-scene commander would be provided direct access to the available data on a near real-time basis.
Commercial markets would include any situation/business enterprise where a knowledge of local positioning of assetsboth machines and
personnel - is necessary or required and the assets are within visual range of any reference point. Prime examples include helicopter lift
logging operations and high rise/wide area building construction. The original Air Force system is completely suitable, and light enough to
use a basic “marker/location beacon” mounted on a hard hat and, with minimum growth, locate and identify specific individuals and
vehicles across a large worksite as both a safety and management tool.
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