Lighting the modern commercial aircraft

THE ADVENT of an aircraft wherein 115-volt alternating voltage is the primary power system offers the lighting engineer an opportunity to exploit a wider field of lighting devices. Previously, aircraft could use alternating voltage only at a sacrifice as it was heavy, expensive, and inefficient. However, it now occupies an advantage over 28-volt direct voltage for lighting use. It is the purpose of this paper to show how lighting research and alternating voltage contribute to the lighting of a modern commerical aircraft.