When commercial airports started operating in the early 1900s, runway lighting systems often consisted of kerosene flares, beacon fires, and floodlights to mark the landing area. Back then, airport operators used whatever was handy to ensure the safe and efficient takeoff and landing of aircraft. Fast forward to today’s modern airports, where advanced technology has become indispensable in everyday runway lighting systems. One key example of an innovation that pilots have come to rely on during approach is the Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI).

Runway lighting systems are designed to reduce pilot uncertainty. They guide aircraft through low-visibility conditions, prevent runway incursions, and ensure safe, efficient takeoffs, landings, and ground movements A critical component of any complete runway lighting system is the lighted wind cone. These high-tech units provide pilots with reliable, real-time information about surface wind direction and relative wind speed during approach, landing, and taxiing. Without them, you run the risk of crosswind landings, aborted takeoffs, and runway accidents.

When one thinks of airport lighting systems, images of high-traffic runways and complex lighting systems providing navigational aid to pilots of large aircraft during landing and taxiing along the busy tarmac often come to mind. It’s a given that large airports such as JFK, O’Hare, and Heathrow would have high-tech runway infrastructures. However, the importance of similar systems enhancing the safety and efficiency of the thousands of small and regional airports that comprise the backbone of national and local aviation networks can’t be ignored.  The challenge for many of these airports is that they are operated by minimal staff, often have an aging infrastructure, and sometimes have budget constraints that make investing in advanced runway lighting an unaffordable luxury.