Strange Cat's Eyes for the RAF!

[pistongone]

I have in the last week on my travels passed two RAF bases and i noticed, as it was dark, that the road i was on as it whent through the extended runway centre line they have active cats eyes,rather like the things cyclists have on there bikes,the LED jobby's.It was only on the extended centre line and then the normal catseyes were used again. At one field i was stuck in traffic and i noticed that these things are actually allight all the time,pulsing at appx 50hrtz as a power saving i presume!
So does anyone know why the RAF would need "active" catseyes ??:rolleyes: What would be the purpose?
I have asked my freinds including current ATPL's and local CFI's etc, all to no availl. So please someone explain.
Thanks, and a Merry christmas to all!!!

[BRL]

Good question.!!!! I am sending a copy of this to the Military forum so keep an eye on it there too. :)

[Circuit Basher]

I don't know about Her Majesty's Magnificent Flying Organisation using new 'cats eyes', but there has been a lot of publicity about the use of new 'active cats eyes' on roads in the foreseeable future.

Are you permitted to indicate which of the bases are involved, as I think they'd be of most use to the fast jet type stations where forward illumination is probably limited compared to the truckies. I'd therefore tend to think in terms of Marham, Honington, Brawdy, Lossiemouth, Leuchars, etc (rather than Brize Norton / Northolt / Lyneham). I could envisage that the beams of landing lights for fast jets would tend to be narrower than those of truckies (for tactical reasons) and that they'd therefore not have enough scatter to adequately illuminate ground-based reflective cats eyes during the early stages of the approach.

Slight techie question - I'm not sure that you'd detect a pulsed rate of 50Hz too well - maybe they're multiplexing the LEDs to cut down on power consumption / control circuitry, etc, but that's just me guessing!

[Dark Helmet]

Were these bases Mildenhall or Lakenheath? If they were then that type of cats-eye has been there for years. They appeared when the road was re-surfaced and they are very good. They aren't restricted to the extended centre line though and start just past the main entrance to the station. I didn't think they had any military or aviation purpose though.

[Windy Militant]

Hmm Have to keep an eye out for landing Jets on the A420 then as they've had active catseyes on some stretches for about a year now! They're great! Mind you I've nearly crashed a couple of times whilst watching them in my mirrors ;)

[Genghis the Engineer]

I've no idea who makes them, but these things have been on test for 3-4 years on some minor A-roads around the mid welsh border. Having taken those roads at night a few times, I think that they are a huge improvement over the traditional variety.

G

[niknak]

They were developed about 3 years ago by a civilian engineering company, and are currently being trialled on the A1065, between the A11 and the A47 in Suffolk/Norfolk - and posssibly elsewhere.
We are also trialling a similar reflective stud, which retains the light but doesn't have the sparkle effect, with a long term view of installing them on subsidary taxiways - this will then mean we don't have to install taxiway edge lights with the associated running and maintenance costs.
Up to now they've done a very good job, and we've had very favourable comments.

[pistongone]

well thanks for all the help, it would appear that they are just flash(excuse the pun!) cats eyes and are of not particularly related to RAF bases. Strange though that i only noticed them there? It was Lakenheath and Boscombe Down where i saw them and i do drive a lot at night,never noticed them before! I must stop driving head down watching the Sky map! :eek:

[tom775257]

The A449 (most dangerous road in the country) from worcs. to Kidderminster was the first stretch with them on according to my local news back then. Sadly they didn't last too long, people just nicked them, put them by their window to charge up in the day, and let them flash all night....

[ShyTorque]

For those interested in the manufacturer's webpages:

http://www.astucia.co.uk