Originally Posted by [URL="http://www.pprune.org/members/161920-double-bogey"
DOUBLE BOGEY[/url]]I agree, but I have heard that it very difficult to produce a robust system that is omnidiractional. Also what about moving decks???
On the contrary it is very easy, although someone have to pay for it first.
For example, few minutes in CAD produces such simplified sketch:
It's a simple design incorporating 3 light sources - in this case LED arrays, that cover 360° , and their visibility is blocked by those "plates" between, all inside polycarbonate transparent shell. Simple, cheap and don't weight much (mostly empty inside) - size dependent on the light source.
Depends what you need, you can change the design very easily. For example in this one, crew on approach will see the yellow light when at angle between -5 to +15, then green from +15 to +25, and red form +25 to +60. The angles can be easily changed, can be overlapping, or not.
For moving decks - mount it on two axis gimbals with electric servos, put gyro inside, and electronics that will steer the servos by gyro input. Small company could design and put into production such system in a week or two
Although that design is not very size-efficient, the best way to do this would be with Fresnel lenses instead of plates, that way the size could be limited by at least 70%... but they're not cheap.