CRJboy From United States of America, joined Jul 2004, 92 posts, RR: 1 Posted (8 years 9 months 1 week 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 8331 times:
Hi everyone. I am here sitting at my desk at 6am PST. in Phoenix. I am bored to death and i was wondering, why does Boeing have diff strobe lights than the Airbus jets? Like...for example..
A B737 has... one red on top, one on bottom and one flashing strobe on each wingtip (plus the green on red on each side and the anti collision light) and it has one on the tail...
An Airbus 320 has one red on top, one on the bottom and the flash at the tip of the wing flashes 2 times and then the red lights repeat...
does anyone know what i mean??? anyways...if you do, please let me know why this is...i have always wondered..thanks
UA777222 From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 3348 posts, RR: 13 Reply 1, posted (8 years 9 months 1 week 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 8237 times:
Are you looking at one airline with these two a/c. (Yes I too am sitting at my desk at 6am for some reason!). I know you can programe the flash sequence in an a/c so maybe it's to the liking of the airline and not the a/c.....
Join in the fun by viewing the PHL live cams. For some reason Terminal A video is down but the Camera 1 is good. This can help you with your question. You can see WN 737's (With winglets I might add) push as NW 319's arrive......
CRJboy From United States of America, joined Jul 2004, 92 posts, RR: 1 Reply 2, posted (8 years 9 months 1 week 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 8213 times:
No...I was at LAX Hilton watching out my window...this 747 took off and one flash ....then a TACA 320 came in and 2 flashes...then a AIR CANADA came in and 2 flashes...then a 340 and even a SQ 345 and they flashed 2 times.. and the 76 and 75 only 1 time....
UA777222 From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 3348 posts, RR: 13 Reply 3, posted (8 years 9 months 1 week 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 8200 times:
Interesting..... Never knew that. I'll ask the father (former UA777 guy) for ya and see if I can dig up any info for you! Thanks again! Great topic of you're incident a week or so ago! You are very professional and quite the f/a that many strive to be!
Airbus_A340 From Hong Kong, joined Mar 2000, 1554 posts, RR: 21 Reply 4, posted (8 years 9 months 1 week 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 8180 times:
The Airbus aircraft tend to have a double flashing strobe light, followed by the red beacon light in sequence. I've noticed it's just older A300's that don't have this sequence.
Boeings tend to flash one strobe and one red, but not necessarily in sequence.
FinnWings From Finland, joined Oct 2003, 640 posts, RR: 3 Reply 5, posted (8 years 9 months 1 week 4 days 8 hours ago) and read 8084 times:
As far as I know there isn't rules which determines the flashing sequence of beacon/strobe lights... so it just depends of the manufacturer. There are only limitations when to use those or from which angle you must be able to see those flights. Some aircrafts also have white beacon flights on the ground and same lights are white once airborne. I think DHC8-100/200/300 have that kind of beacons and some Saabs as well.
By the way, also MD-11s have double flashing strobes. It is easy to reconize different aircrafts just because of the flights...and that is great!
AJ From Australia, joined Nov 1999, 2376 posts, RR: 27 Reply 6, posted (8 years 9 months 1 week 4 days 3 hours ago) and read 8041 times:
The newer Airbus models have double flashing forward facing strobes (wingtips) and a single flashing tail strobe, this way observers can tell if the aircraft is approaching or going away. Approaching = double flash, going away = single flash. MDC also used this on some MD-11s.
MD11Engineer From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 13334 posts, RR: 64 Reply 7, posted (8 years 9 months 1 week 4 days 1 hour ago) and read 8012 times:
Boeing tends to use selfcontained strobe units, which flash uncoordinated.
On the MD-11 each flasher unit (two forward on each wing, one aft each, two anti collision lights (top and bottom)) are coordinated by a flasher-timer unit in the CAC (Center accessory compartment). The two forward facing flasher units fire one after the other, followed by the rear ones and then the anti collision lights. The idea is to be able to determine if the plane is approaching or departing from a bigger distance than possible by just using the red/green position lights. If you see two flashes, the plane is approaching you, if you see only one white flash, it is going away from you. Each flasher contains it´s own power supply, capacitator and tube. If the flasher-timer-unit fails, the lights will continue to flash. but uncoordinated.
Mosdern airbusses use a similar system.
FriendlySkies From United States of America, joined Aug 2004, 4003 posts, RR: 6 Reply 8, posted (8 years 9 months 1 week 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 7972 times:
Don't forget the L-1011, which I believe had dual beacon lights, two on top and two on the bottom. Very unique.
Tiger119 From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 1919 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (8 years 9 months 1 week 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 7871 times:
"Don't forget the L-1011, which I believe had dual beacon lights, two on top and two on the bottom. Very unique."
- When TZ had a bunch of L10s, some beacons were rotating lights and a couple ships had beacons that were actual strobe lights. Now TZ only has five L10s left........
Flying is the second greatest thrill known to mankind, landing is the first!
AirframeAS From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 14150 posts, RR: 26 Reply 10, posted (8 years 9 months 2 days 19 hours ago) and read 7698 times:
An Airbus 320 has one red on top, one on the bottom and the flash at the tip of the wing flashes 2 times and then the red lights repeat...
Actually, the A320/21/19/18 has TWO white wing strobe flashing lights in there sitting side by side with the red/green nav lights. One flashes then the other one flashes immediately after the first one flashes. I found this out when I was flying on HP and the A320 next to mine still had its wing strobe flashing and I thats how I knew. It was pretty interesting. Each wing has TWO white strobes, not just one as I originally thought...cool!!
A Safe Flight Begins With Quality Maintenance On The Ground.
Yokohama1970 From United States of America, joined Jul 2004, 199 posts, RR: 2 Reply 11, posted (8 years 9 months 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 7543 times:
Since i work around the full mixed fleet of AWA planes daily,let me add some observations.
our A319's & A320's do in fact have two seperate wing tip strobe lights, within the same wing-tip housing. they do blink in sequence (1st, 2nd, 1st, 2nd,etc..). the anti-collision beacons are red & blink in sequence. oddly, the rear strobe @ the aft of the fuselage is a white single blink only. the single blink is in sequence with the 1st wing-tip strobe. when Lufthansa operated FRA-PHX-FRA, we used to watch it land & take-off. the A340-300, has the exact same wing-tip strobe pattern & anti-collision beacon pattern as the A319 & A320.
our 757-200's have a sequenced red anti-collision, followed by the sequenced white wing-tip strobes. the HA 767-300, has the exact same sequence.
CO's 737-700/800/900 (AWA handled CO Ground Ops @ PHX until summer 2003) have the same sequence as the 757 & 767, except that the single rear strobe @ the aft of the fueselage blinks randomly or out of sequence.
rather strange how aircraft strobes & beacons flash qualities differ.
CFIjames From United States of America, joined Aug 2004, 87 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (8 years 9 months 22 hours ago) and read 7427 times:
When I worked on the ramp in Salt Lake we would all take bets on whether the plane on final was our next jetBlue flight or not. The more experienced guys would always be able to tell by the double strobe because unless it was Northwest's A320, it had to be our B6 flight that late at night.
Anyway, on a similar topic, Ive noticed some, but not all, of Southwest's 737's have sequenced flashing landing lights. Like right-left-right-left. I never noticed if it was only the next gen's or not, nor whether any other airline had that, or if the same A/C type could be flashing or not flashing leading me to beleive that it was able to be controlled in the cockpit. I know on some GA planes I've flown you can have the wingtip lights steady on or sequenced recognition lights. Anyone ever notice this?
There are 3 simple rules for making a perfect landing every time. Its a shame that no one knows what they are.
KC7MMI From United States of America, joined Oct 2003, 854 posts, RR: 4 Reply 13, posted (8 years 7 months 2 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 6913 times:
Jeez, wassup with all these weird airplane lights? On Robbies we just have one anti-collision light, which is on the tail. And we only turn our position lights on at night....aaahh the simple life!
OPNLguy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 14, posted (8 years 7 months 2 weeks 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 6829 times:
>>>Anyway, on a similar topic, Ive noticed some, but not all, of Southwest's 737's have sequenced flashing landing lights. Like right-left-right-left. I never noticed if it was only the next gen's or not, nor whether any other airline had that, or if the same A/C type could be flashing or not flashing leading me to beleive that it was able to be controlled in the cockpit. I know on some GA planes I've flown you can have the wingtip lights steady on or sequenced recognition lights. Anyone ever notice this?
SWA aircraft, like many corporate aircraft, have a system that alternates/pulses the landing lights in this pattern...
Fadec From United States of America, joined Jun 2004, 45 posts, RR: 0 Reply 15, posted (8 years 7 months 1 week 6 days 20 hours ago) and read 6611 times:
The flashing sequence is determined by the strobe unit itself. It is controlled by a timer within each unit separately. The flashing rate is set up at the factory for each.
Seeing all are powered up basically at the same time due their being off the same switch, all the strobes will follow a similar pattern. Throw in the anti-collision lights (flashing reds top and bottom.) which flash at a similar rate they too will appear to be sequenced together with the strobes. It is almost impossible to turn on the switch so they match perfectly... we tried during one slow night.
After standing in front of many aircraft board out of my wits during long engine runs I can tell you after time there will be a slight difference in the sequence. This even applies to the anti-collision lights. One thing I always thought was interesting was that the top collision light always seems to flash ever so slightly slower then the bottom. This is more noticeable in older and possibly soon to burn out units.
On some older classic's the anti-collision light isn't a flashing light at all. It is actually a rotating beacon just like a police light. It only appears to flash when the beam passes your eye. Though it too is timed to rotate and appear to "flash" at a specific rate.
On an end note see FAR 23.1401 light aircraft or 25.1401 larg aircraft which covers anti-collision lighting requirments. I was actually surprised how loose the requirment is. Both are 40-100 flashes per mintue.
Fadec From United States of America, joined Jun 2004, 45 posts, RR: 0 Reply 17, posted (8 years 7 months 1 week 6 days 7 hours ago) and read 6508 times:
Nav lights are required to be: left=red, right=green, aft=white
Anti-collision beacons can be either red or white. (in the US at least)
Position and strobe lights are all required to be white.
You will normally see both nav lights and strobe lights contained in each wing tip. So, to answer your question the strobe will be white. Then depending on the wing the nav will be either red or green.
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