초록 ▼

A runway lighting fixture of the type normally permanently installed at an aircraft installation such as an airport to provide visible light signals to an aircraft, the fixture having an internal, non-visible light source such as an infrared lamp capable of being activated to provide a non-visible l

A runway lighting fixture of the type normally permanently installed at an aircraft installation such as an airport to provide visible light signals to an aircraft, the fixture having an internal, non-visible light source such as an infrared lamp capable of being activated to provide a non-visible light signal to an aircraft specially equipped to see such non-visible signals. An airport normally having arrays of permanent visibly-lighted fixtures can be equipped for long-term or permanent covert operations capability by installing covert, non-visibly-lighted fixtures in place of visibly-lighted fixtures. In a preferred form the covert fixtures are capable of being both visibly and non-visibly lighted to allow normal appearing non-covert operations at the airport, and unobtrusive covert operations whenever needed.

대표청구항 ▼

We claim: 1. In a permanently installed runway lighting fixture at an aircraft landing installation comprising a permanently installed array of visible-lighting fixtures comprising visible light sources electrically interconnected to said control means remote from said fixtures and normally used to

We claim: 1. In a permanently installed runway lighting fixture at an aircraft landing installation comprising a permanently installed array of visible-lighting fixtures comprising visible light sources electrically interconnected to said control means remote from said fixtures and normally used to provide non-covert visible lighting to non-covert air traffic, the improvement comprising: a non-visible light source mounted in the fixture and electrically interconnected to said array of visible lighting fixtures and said control means and capable of being selectively activated by said control means to provide covert lighting for covert air operations using the permanently installed fixture in the permanently installed array. 2. The runway lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein the fixture has a housing of a type normally used for non-covert, permanent installation at the aircraft landing installation. 3. The runway lighting fixture of claim 2, wherein the fixture normally has two visible light sources, and one of the visible light sources is replaced with the non-visible light source. 4. The runway lighting fixture of claim 2, wherein the fixture is normally powered from an external source of power at the aircraft landing installation, and the non-visible light source is connected to the fixture to use the external source of power. 5. The runway lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein the visible light source is associated with a first light-emitting window in the fixture, and the non-visible light source is associated with a second light-emitting window in the fixture. 6. The runway lighting fixture of claim 2, wherein the fixture is adapted to be removably secured to a mounting base installed at the aircraft landing installation. 7. The runway lighting fixture of claim 6, wherein the base is a can-type base permanently embedded in the ground or runway pavement, and the fixture is an inset type secured to the top of the can. 8. The runway lighting fixture of claim 7, wherein the base has a power connection to an external source of power at the aircraft installation, and the fixture has a detachable connection to the power connection in the base. 9. The runway lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein the non-visible light source and the visible light source are independently powered. 10. The runway lighting fixture of claim 9, wherein the fixture includes a source of battery power for the non-visible light source. 11. The runway lighting fixture of claim 10, wherein the fixture includes a manual actuator for the non-visible light source. 12. A method for covertly lighting an aircraft installation having a plurality of permanently installed, non-covert runway lighting fixtures electrically interconnected to control means remote from said fixtures and producing visible, non-covert light signals to guide aircraft, comprising the following steps: installing a plurality of covert runway lighting fixtures that appear to be non-covert fixtures permanently installed at the aircraft installation and electrically interconnected to said non-covert runway lighting fixtures and said control means, the covert runway lighting fixtures capable of producing a non-visible, covert light signal to guide aircraft equipped to see the covert light signal, and selectively activating the covert runway lighting fixtures by use of said control means. 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of installing covert runway lighting fixtures includes the step of replacing existing, non-covert fixtures. 14. The method of claim 13, further including the step of connecting the covert fixtures to use the same source of power as the non-covert fixtures they replace. 15. The method of claim 12, wherein one or more of the covert fixtures is capable of emitting both non-visible covert light signals and visible non-covert light signals. 16. The method of claim 12, wherein the covert fixtures are substantially similar in appearance to the non-covert fixtures. 17. The method of claim 16, wherein one or more non-covert fixtures is replaced with an externally identical covert fixture. 18. The method of claim 17, wherein a non-covert fixture having one or more visible light sources is removed and modified with one or more non-visible light sources. 19. A covert runway lighting fixture for permanent installation at an aircraft landing installation having visible runway lighting fixtures electrically interconnected to control means remote from said fixtures, comprising a non-visible light source in the fixture adapted to be electrically interconnected to said visible runway lighting fixtures and said control means and a fixture housing externally similar to a visible runway lighting fixture housing lighting said non-visible light source being selectively activated by said control means. 20. The runway lighting fixture of claim 1, wherein the fixture also includes a visible light source for normally providing non-covert visible lighting to non-covert air traffic.