Last night I saw a Southwest 737 fly over on approach to KDAL and the standard white wingtip strobes had been exchanged for white LED wingtip strobes. The red anti-colision and white tail strobes were still standard issue.
Does anyone have information about this modification? Will it be a conversion available on all 737s? Are there plans to changes the remaining strobes over to LED at some point?
Thanks,
Ryan
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- barney captain
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RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
I'm unaware of any LED strobe installations on our a/c - but that certainly doesn't mean it's not happening. Did you happen to notice if it was a -300 or a -7/800? I've seen a few JetBlue 320's with the new winglets that also incorporated the LED strobes as you've described.
RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
| Quoting barney captain (Reply 1): I'm unaware of any LED strobe installations on our a/c - but that certainly doesn't mean it's not happening. Did you happen to notice if it was a -300 or a -7/800? I've seen a few JetBlue 320's with the new winglets that also incorporated the LED strobes as you've described. |
I believe it was a -700 on account the strobe was from the root of the winglet versus up high like on the -300s.
Ryan
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- barney captain
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RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
| Quoting RyDawg82 (Reply 2): I believe it was a -700 on account the strobe was from the root of the winglet versus up high like on the -300s. |
Wow, great observation. I suspected it would have been on a classic, but as you pointed out, the strobe would have been higher on the winglet. I will be in Dallas over the weekend for training, let me see if I can find out anything.
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- fghtngsiouxatc
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RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
I saw a WN 738 with LED strobes the other day while working at MDW. Must have been a brand spanking new delivery. I've only seen the one, and haven't seen another since. Oddly enough, the LEDs are only on the wingtip strobes, with a conventional strobe on the tail.
RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
| Quoting fghtngsiouxatc (Reply 4): Oddly enough, the LEDs are only on the wingtip strobes, with a conventional strobe on the tail. |
I guess my question would be does that tail strobe have an LED light source with a conventional globe/lens?
Okie
RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
The 747-8 also has LED wingtip strobes, while the tail strobe is a conventional strobe.
Ryan
Ryan
RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
| Quoting RyDawg82 (Thread starter): Does anyone have information about this modification? Will it be a conversion available on all 737s? |
I do not know about conversion (though I would imagine that conversion is not a particularly difficult thing to do), but new 737s began rolling off the line with LEDs on the wings over the summer.
I first noticed it while I was photographing this guy:
Photo © A. Kwanten
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- QANTAS747-438
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RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
Yes, new build -800s for WN have the LEDs. Saw one recently on N8617 or 8618 maybe.
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- DocLightning
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RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
It does make a lot of sense. LEDs at the 5,000-6,000K color temperature seem easier to see than the lower color temperature of standard lights and strobes. And LEDs can be made to fade in/fade out, blink on and off, or strobe. Their "on/off" times are essentially instantaneous (you can cycle them at hundreds or thousands of Hz if you like). Also, they age by total time powered up, but by number of times powered up. And, honestly, once the LED is installed, a given airline might have to replace it once during the entire lifetime of the aircraft. They're an especially good choice for the exterior of aircraft because they perform well even at very low temperatures.
The big issue is that, while they're easy enough to replace for bulbs in your house, it might not be so simple in an airplane or a car. A LED's electrical behavior is different from standard bulbs/strobes and some vehicular electrical systems are finicky enough that a simple swap-out isn't possible.
I wonder why they went that way.
The big issue is that, while they're easy enough to replace for bulbs in your house, it might not be so simple in an airplane or a car. A LED's electrical behavior is different from standard bulbs/strobes and some vehicular electrical systems are finicky enough that a simple swap-out isn't possible.
| Quoting rydawg82 (Reply 6): The 747-8 also has LED wingtip strobes, while the tail strobe is a conventional strobe. |
I wonder why they went that way.
RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
N8617E, just flew her from MDW-BWI-TPA on Thursday. The wing is full LEDs (position and strobe). Looks sharp and much brighter.
[Edited 2013-10-26 13:03:01]
[Edited 2013-10-26 13:03:01]
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- fghtngsiouxatc
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RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
I saw another WN 738 with LEDs at MDW yesterday. The left strobe was either burnt out or inop. The right side worked and the (conventional) tail strobe worked, but the left one didn't blink. Looks like they're still working out some kinks...
RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
Longer lasting and no need to replace the LEDs in service are def an advantage in terms of cost saving.
Anyone having a video link of how these LED strobes actually look like while functioning.
Anyone having a video link of how these LED strobes actually look like while functioning.
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- barney captain
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RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
Interesting news. Does anyone know why the tail strobe is still conventional?
RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
| Quoting Barney Captain (Reply 13): Interesting news. Does anyone know why the tail strobe is still conventional? |
Wondered about that myself. It's the same way on the Airbus versions with sharklets, as well as the B748.
RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
| Quoting Barney Captain (Reply 13): Interesting news. Does anyone know why the tail strobe is still conventional |
Off hand I would say no real regulatory requirement but may require an approval before use.
My guess is that they are going to use up current stock of units before switching to the LED's. What would you do with say a hundred conventional assemblies when the replacement unit is eventually going to be LED's
Okie
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- shamrock137
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RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
| Quoting Barney Captain (Reply 13): |
Most likely because an LED tail strobe assembly would require additional certification. Both Boeing and Airbus were able to certify the wing lights as part of the winglet certification, while to change the tail would require an additional separate certification = more money.
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- barney captain
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RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
| Quoting shamrock137 (Reply 16): Most likely because an LED tail strobe assembly would require additional certification. Both Boeing and Airbus were able to certify the wing lights as part of the winglet certification, while to change the tail would require an additional separate certification = more money. |
Maybe. But this:
"The 747-8 also has LED wingtip strobes, while the tail strobe is a conventional strobe."
Makes me think there's more to it. Why would a newly certified aircraft also have this configuration?
RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
| Quoting HAWK21M (Reply 12): Anyone having a video link of how these LED strobes actually look like while functioning. |
748:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roMydUSoIgs
788:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d4viIVhJBM
For some reason the strobes on the WN 738 look more like conventional ones and not LED:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuiozR9_9oE
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- barney captain
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RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
El Al -900s also have 787-style strobes. Anti col light standard though.
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- barney captain
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RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
They're definitely out there - well, at least one. I caught a glimpse last night of a SWA (I assume -800) landing in SAN with the LED strobes.
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- DocLightning
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RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
Are all exterior lights on the 787 LED or are the spotlights something else?
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- NOLAWildcat
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RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
At the risk of moving slightly off-topic, does anyone know if United has installed LED strobes on some of their older aircraft? I was driving down 101 towards SFO last week and observed what looked like a 767 or 757 (definitely not a new delivery 737 or 787 as it was in United's old Blue scheme) with the new LED wingtip strobes.
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- skyhawkmatthew
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RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
| Quoting DocLightning (Reply 22): Are all exterior lights on the 787 LED or are the spotlights something else? |
Strobes, beacon, position lights are LED; landing, taxi, inspection, etc spotlights are HID Xenons.
RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
I flew on a brand new UA739ER this week LAX-MSY and it was the 250th next-gen for United as well. It had the LED strobes. The beacon lights were normal with other 737's.
RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
Seriously, this has to be one of the nerdiest post's..
Even for A. net, and yes, I am guiltier than most
Even for A. net, and yes, I am guiltier than most
RE: Southwest Airlines 737 With LED Strobes
Alaska also has led wingtip strobes on its latest 900ER's. N431AS, N433AS, N435AS, N440AS.
[Edited 2013-11-23 09:16:18]
[Edited 2013-11-23 09:16:18]
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