Let's define our terms. An "anti-collision light" may be either a rotating beacon, pulsing light (think older Cessna), or a strobe, depending on which the manufacturer chose when he certified the aircraft. In the case of the civilian Bell 206, the anti-collision light is a strobe on top of the vertical fin.
Back in the 1970's, I did a study of auxiliary strobe light systems because the 206's we were operating in a very high-traffic area only had that dinky little vertical fin strobe. I discovered that putting a red lens over a white strobe light decreases its effective brightness by about 75%. Obviously, white is the way to go, which is why nobody offers red auxiliary strobes anymore. We went with the combination strobe/position light units mounted on the ends of the horizontal stab.
Whelen even came up with a half-red/half-white cap for the anti-collision light on the 206 (and other a/c that used a similar unit). Only God knows how many thousands of aircraft ended up with those new and improved lens covers over the years.
Until the FAA finally got around to noticing...
§27.1401 Anticollision light system.
(a) General. If certification for night operation is requested, the rotorcraft must have an anticollision light system that (snip) --
(d) Color. Each anticollision light must be aviation red and must meet the applicable requirements of § 27.1397.
Oops! This explains why, in the mid-1990's, the FAA began insisting that all of those half-red/half-white lens covers be removed and the "standard" all-red covers be re-installed. I thought it was a giant step backward at the time, and still do to this day.
You may put as many white
extra strobes on your aircraft as you like, as long as the certified anti-collision light is red.
It's always amusing to me to see helicopter pilots start up their ships at night on dark ramps with either no lights at all showing or just the anti-collision light (strobe). Don't they know the rules? U.S. FAR part-91 requires position lights anytime you operate an aircraft at night. (And for some reason, the FAA requires that if your a/c is equipped with an anti-collision light system, it must be on at all times, day or night. Go figure.)
I like lights. I particularly like having a "headlight" burning when I approach busy terminals. Ideally, the helicopter should have a forward-facing "taxi" light that can be used as a recognition light,
and a downward-pointing landing light which should only be used at night, when landing.