1. Research and Development
Visual Guidance
Research and Development
Presented to: 34th Annual Eastern Region Airport Conference
By: Donald Gallagher, Program Manager
Date: March 2011

2. Airport Safety Technology R&D
Wildlife Hazard Mitigation Program
Hazards Management, Bird Detection Radar
Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting Program (ARFF)
Agents, Vehicles
New Large Aircraft Program (NLA)
Airport Issues Concerning NLA
Airport Design Program
Airport Design
Airport Planning Program
Terminal Design Guidelines, Multimodal Access
Airport Surface Operations Program
Runway Friction, Soft Ground Arrestor System, Runway Deicing
Visual Guidance Program
Lighting, Marking, Signing

3. Phasing out Incandescent Lamps
The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007
Begins to phases out incandescent and halogen incandescent lamps in 2012
Within five years an LED replacement for the PAR Type 38 halogen light will be needed
The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 is available at:

5. LED Applications Issues
Does the “narrow spectral band” of LED have a negative impact to pilots with certain types of color deficient vision?
CIVIL AEROSPACE MEDICAL INSTITUTE (CAMI) and Airport Safety Technology R&D (AJP-6311) completed an evaluation on this issue sponsored by the Lighting Systems Office, AJW-46 and Office of Airport Safety and Standards, AAS-1

6. LEDs and Color Deficiency Issue
Approximately 8% of males and 0.5% of females in the population have congenital red-green color-deficient vision.
These people have reduced ability to discriminate redness-greenness throughout the full gamut of colors.
The problem includes the red, orange, yellow, and yellow-green parts of the visible spectrum.
Red and green are not uniformly replaced by grey. For some people with color-vision deficiency, colors like beige and yellow replace red and green.

7. LEDs and Color Deficiency Issue
The three main varieties of color-vision deficiency:
Protan - cannot distinguish reds and greens; reds appear dark and less bright than other colors.
Deutan - like protans, cannot distinguish reds and greens. though, there is no brightness deficiency.
Tritan - blues and greens are confused (less common).

8. LEDs and Color Deficiency Issue
Majority of color deficients are Deutans.
Results of study show using LEDs may actually help Deutans.

9. Define what “system(s)” are not to be interspersed.
How will this technology interact if interspersed with standard incandescent lights?
Define what “system(s)” are not to be interspersed.
Runway Guard Lights.
Touchdown zone.
Runway Edge including Threshold, End lights and Stopways.
Signs per location.
Taxiway curved segments (centerline and edge).
Approach Light System.
Stop Bar.
Runway Centerline.
Rapid Exit Taxiway Indicator Lights (RETIL) (up until the holding position or runway vacated position).
Intermediate holding position.
Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI)

10. How will this technology interact with present airport systems?
Established a Electrical Infrastructure Research Team (EIRT)
A team of FAA and Industry experts to design an Airport Lighting Infrastructure to take full advantage of new lighting technologies.

11. How will this technology interact with present airport systems?
Circuit designs considered so far:
450 V, AC Parallel Circuit
1.4 Amp, DC Series Circuit
2.8 Amp, AC Series Circuit
PWM, DC Series Circuit
Preparing small scale testing of these circuits.

12. FALSE! Claim: LEDs can not be seen with Night Vision Goggles!
True or False?
FALSE!
What lights are seen is not based on the lighting technology. It is based on what spectrum the NVG technology uses.
NVGs have either Type A or B filters which changes the spectrum sensed.

13. Night Vision Goggles
Commonly used Gen 3 NVGs sensitivity range is from approx. 450nm to 920nm.
Commonly produced LEDs are from 460nm for Blue to 645nm for Red.
NVG Gen3 without filters will respond to Green, Yellow, and Red LEDs.

14. Night Vision Goggles
Class A filters respond at wavelengths longer than 620nm and Class B at 640nm.
With class A filters it will respond to red LEDs.
With class B filters no LEDs and some incandescent in the colors listed will cause a visual response.

15. Night Vision Goggles
L-810 LED Red Obstruction Light from 60 ft using NVGs with Class A filter 15

16. Elevated Runway Guard Lights (ERGL)16

17. Recommendations
LED ERGL
Step
Current Standard
Recommended Value
Step 3 (100%)
3000 cd cd
Step 1 (10%)
300 cd cd
These values can be obtained by a combination of a selecting a square wave signal, flash rate, and on-time percentage.
The best flash rates & on-time percentages were:
% or %

18. Moving Forward
Prototype LED ERGLs have been constructed based on the lab study that will:
Compatible with typical airport electrical infrastructures.
Ability to provide 90, 135, and 180 flashes per minute, with a square wave at a duty cycle of 30% and 70% (selectable for evaluation).
Ability to provide a minimum average intensity of 90 Cd at Step 1 dimming (10%) and 900 Cd for Step 3 (100%).
Field testing at Daytona Int’l Airport in 2011.

19. Holding Position Signs for Runway Approach Areas
ATO is in the process of revising their current procedure, which does not require pilots to obtain a specific clearance to cross these holding markings.
In the revised procedures Pilots will now be required to obtain specific clearance to pass any holding position marking/signing.

20. Holding Position Signs for Runway Approach Areas
The RSO has identified a potential risk of runway incursions due to pilot confusion at the holding position marking and signs for a runway approach.
ATO would like to retain their current practice - consistency therefore a different marking and signing may be required.

21. Holding Position Signs for Runway Approach Areas
Additionally, current signing identifies the protected area as an "approach" with the corresponding runway designation.
In practice, the protected area is also associated with departures from the reciprocal runway.
Potential exists for confusion if pilots and/or air traffic controllers must refer to the approach to a runway in verbal communications when operations are actually departures on the reciprocal runway.

22. Holding Position Signs for Runway Approach Areas

23. Standard Mandatory Sign
When Hold is Required
15 - APCH

24. Standard Mandatory Sign When Hold is NOT Required
15 - APCH
1st Change Standard Hold Line Marking To
Conditional Hold Line Marking (ILS/MLS) for Approach areas

25. Standard Mandatory Sign When Hold is NOT Required
15 - APCH
15 - APCH
And possibly
Change Sign from RED To
GREEN

26. Holding Position Signs for Runway Approach Areas
Status
Obtaining Quotes from LED sign manufacturers to build prototype sign.

27. Automatic Switching technologies for Rwy Centerline Lights in a Displaced Threshold
The FAA Advisory Circular AC 150/ D “Design and Installation details for Airport Visual Aids” states:
“For displaced threshold areas over 700 feet (100m) in length and used for takeoffs, the centerline lights in the displaced area are circuited separately from the centerline lights in the non-displaced runway area to permit turning “off” the centerline lights in the displaced area during landing operations.”
Teterboro Airport has this issue on both ends of runway 1/19.
Air Traffic Control are indisposed to operating the interlock switch that manually controls the centerline lights.

28. Project Objectives
Evaluate and determine the feasibility of using varied surveillance technologies and safety logic to automate the activation/deactivation of Runway Centerline Lighting in a displaced threshold to support takeoff/landing operations.
Install and optimize the preferred technology at Teterboro Airport (TEB)

29. Solution Architecture
Surveillance of the area of interest is derived from a surveillance element Light activation logic determines if centerline lights should be activated. Light commands are sent to field lighting system

30. Use Case

31. Sensors Deployment

32. Conclusions
The tests and evaluations proved that localized surveillance technologies and coupled safety logic are viable to automate the activation/deactivation of lights in a displaced threshold runway environment to support takeoff/landing operations.
Operational concepts and performance requirements were developed for a runway light automation system harnessing localized surveillance sensors to support the use of the system at civil airports.

33. Principal Requirements
The sensors shall be located to allow for an unobstructed view of the displaced threshold area.
The sensors shall be placed within 550 feet of the displaced threshold area.
The sensors shall be mounted on a stable structure
A permanent operational deployment shall include for a phase-in period to allow testing of 2000 movements.

34. Mitigation Strategies/Recommendations
The system support equipment shall be situated in an operating environment with
Temperature: 20 to 30ºC derating 1.0ºC per every 1000ft above sea level. Maximum rate of change: 10ºC/hr Humidity: 20-80% relative non-condensing No direct sustained sunlight
Ancillary functional and performance requirements will be disclosed in impending regulatory guidance

35. Low-Cost Ground Surveillance Specification Development

36. and improving capacity and resource utilization
Mission
To enhance airport operations by improving safety, shared situational awareness & environmental impact, reducing airport operating costs
and improving capacity and resource utilization
The LCGS Project Scope
Develop FAA functional and operational standards for LCGS implementation that would support AIP eligibility for this system.
Provide the foundational capability to support other runway safety improvements (e.g. RWSL, dynamic stop bar automation, …).
Develop a cost-benefits case for the use of Low Cost Ground Surveillance Systems for airport operations.

37. LCGS Challenge
Of over 460 towered airports in the NAS only 35 of the larger airports have or are slated to receive comprehensive surface surveillance systems (i.e. ASDE-X).
Many of the excluded small to mid-sized airports have considerable surveillance needs that are not being met.
Surveillance capacity is limited to voice reporting and field of view
Many of today’s airports struggle with the challenge of improving operational efficiency and maximizing revenue growth opportunities.

38. LCGS High Level Concept
The currently developed LCGS solution is centered on the use of a Surface Movement Radar (SMR) to monitor ground traffic movements.
SMR inherently presents some deficiencies (loss of target due to masking, plot clutter due to rain or grass reflection, flight label overlap, etc.) which renders the surveillance function less effective and could result in a lack of confidence in the system.
SMR technology is characterized by high maintenance and lifecycle costs.

39. LCGS High Level Concept
Researching existing technology the framework recommended for an LCGS system is the coupling of a network of non-cooperative (i.e. optical and thermal devices) sensors and a Mode S multilateration system.
This will provide the most flexible and modular framework for the smaller airports as multilateration systems can be easily adapted to smaller coverage areas with complex layouts and no vertical extension.
This network design would provide several levels of redundancy which would translate into continuous operational availability and coverage.

40. Status
Concluded final preliminary study on strengths, limitations and cost effectiveness of prospective systems.
Conducting site visits to deployment locations of prospective systems.
Work in concert with the Advanced Technologies Development & Prototyping Group (AJP-67) at the three approved test sites of San Jose Airport (SJC), Long Beach Airport (LGB) and Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT).
- Test candidate systems against predefined functional requirements.
- Evaluate operational feasibility of candidate systems.

41. General Aviation For non-part 139 airports
Lighting small airports that do not qualify for AIP funds.
“COMMUNITY SERVICE AIRPORT LIGHTING HANDBOOK” posted on Illuminating Engineering Societies Aviation Lighting Committee's (IESALC) web site.

42. Vertical Flight Current Facility Final Approach & TakeOff (FATO) area
Touchdown & Lift Off (TLOF) area
Final Approach & TakeOff (FATO) area
Heliport Approach Lighting System (HALS) for IMC
Heliport Instrument Landing System (HILS) for IMC
Heliport Approach Path Indicator (CHAPI)
Current Facility

43. Vertical Flight
Conducting photometric tests on products being sold as heliport perimeter lights.
Intensity
Beam spread
Chromaticity
Currently conducting flight test
To determine if a suitable candidate exists.

44. Research Runway Delaware River Bay Authority Cape May County Airport
Cape May County Airport( KWWD)
Cape May County Airport
Delaware River Bay Authority

45. Research Runway Runway 10/28 - 4,998 x 150 ft.
Cape May County Airport( KWWD)
Cape May County Airport( KWWD)

46. New Visual Guidance Technology Test Bed
Will be conducted in three phases funded over a three year period.
Phase 1:
To be Completed:
Layout plan.
Schedule of installation.
Begin refurbishment of unused runway pavement.
Begin electrical infrastructure installation.
Currently developing an MOA with the Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA) for the use of Cape May Airport.

47. Questions or Comments? www.airporttech.tc.faa.gov
– Visual Guidance Program Manager
FAA Technical Center
Airport Safety Technology R&D Section
AJP-6311, AAR-411, Building 296
Atlantic City International Airport, NJ 08405