Patent ID: 8651686

Claim:
A lighting unit for lighting airfields at an airport, in particular for signaling an aircraft, comprising a light source for generating light to be radiated and having at least one light emitting diode, electrical components for supplying and steering the light source, optical components for affecting the light generated by the light source, and an outer housing for receiving the light source as well as the electrical and optical components, the outer housing having a light exit opening through which light affected by the optical components will exit, wherein the lighting unit comprises a gastightly closed cassette module, in which the light source is arranged together with the optical components, wherein the electrical components are equally arranged inside the gastightly closed cassette module, the cassette module has an opening into which a transparent window element for radiating light is gastightly inserted, which has an optical element for affecting the beam shape and/or radiation direction of the exiting light beam, and wherein the light emitting diode and the optical element are positioned with respect to each other and secured in mutual alignment for generating a required intensity distribution of the radiated light, and the cassette module is integrated into the outer housing, wherein the outer housing is also gastightly closed, so that the components arranged inside the cassette module benefit from double tightness protection.