Further Details
The Oxley survivolite helicopter emergency egress lighting system is
designed for use on military and civilian helicopters to provide visual
guidance to an escape hatch from any location inside the fuselage of a
crashed or ditched aircraft.
The Oxley system typically comprises of
the following components and configuration is amended to suit individual
aircraft requirements:
- Control Unit - one per exit
- Inertia switch - one per Aircraft
- Water Switch - two per Aircraft, high and low locations
- LED Lighting Pods - 5-12 pods per exit
The system integrates with 2 x aircraft generator signals and a cockpit mounted select switch. Escape
hatches are often on aircraft doors, where aircraft power is
unavailable; this is a complete self-powered system. It has a number of
triggers which illuminate a set of high intensity LED pod lights,
designed to penetrate the most adverse conditions of turbid water and
dense smoke. The high intensity point-sources minimise absorption and
scatter and maximise optical penetration. Water rushing into an aircraft
cabin carries escaping hydraulic fluid, oil, fuel and accumulated grime
which adds to the attenuation through sea water alone and may then
appear very black and optically dense. Refraction of light and the
myopic effect on the human eye caused by the water pressure places
serious requirements on the design of the emergency egress lighting
system that only high brightness LEDs will satisfy.