Patent ID: 7088263

Claim:
An aircraft landing guidance system for visually guiding an aircraft in its landing approach to a runway having an approach area equipped with a plurality of lights operable in accordance with a plurality of intensity states including at least a low state, a medium state, and a high state, said plurality of lights including a plurality of strobe lights being coupled across at least one power supply, said system comprising: at least one input source for requesting said plurality of lights to operate in accordance with said plurality of intensity states, said at least one input source receives a plurality of lighting intensity requests including a low request, a medium request, and a high request that correspond respectively to said low, medium, and high states of said plurality of lights, said at least one input source being capable of receiving a request for change in lighting intensity from one of said states to another; circuitry for charging and discharging said plurality of strobe lights, said circuitry including: at least one strobe trigger switch connected to at least one strobe light of said plurality of strobe lights; a plurality of capacitors coupled across said at least one strobe light including: at least one high intensity capacitor coupled across said at least one strobe light; at least one medium intensity capacitor coupled across said at least one strobe light; and at least one low intensity capacitor coupled across said at least one strobe light; and a plurality of capacitor switches coupled to said plurality of capacitors including at least one high intensity switch coupled to said at least one high intensity capacitor and at least one medium intensity switch coupled to said at least one medium intensity capacitor; and a control module in communication with said at least one input source, said plurality of switches, and said at least one trigger switch, said control module being adapted for controlling operation of said plurality of capacitor switches based on said request for change in lighting intensity from said input source, said control module executes said request to first inhibit operation of said plurality of strobe lights for a predetermined delay period, then activates at least one said plurality of capacitor switches to effect said change in lighting intensity, and subsequently permits operation of said plurality of strobe lights.