The Runway End Identification Lights (REIL) system provides pilots rapid and positive identification of the end of the runway through two synchronized, unidirectional flashing lights positioned at the corner of the runway landing threshold. Whenever a REIL goes out at an airport, it can be a serious safety concern, as it can hinder pilots’ ability to locate their runway at night or to locate it in adverse weather conditions.
At the beginning of 2014, the Logistics Center (AML) had repaired 111 REIL Identifier Unity Assemblies (IUA) for that year, and by the end of 2015 the count had increased to 283. In response to these equipment failures, AML initiated an engineering and quality investigation to determine the root cause of these equipment failures. When the National Airway Systems Engineering group (AJW-14) had insufficient funding to support the needed redesign and testing efforts, the Navigation/Landing/Weather Product Division (AML-7000) stepped up and began developing an engineering solution of their own. Meanwhile, the REIL equipment consistently continued to be at the top of AML-7000’s backorder list throughout 2016. To date, the demand has increased to over 367 IUA’s per year.
The team remains actively engaged with stakeholders from Second Level Engineering, the William J. Hughes Technical Center (WJHTC), and the Navigation/Lighting Program Office on all aspects of the project to ensure that a successful resolution is fully deployed into the National Airspace System (NAS).
Members of the AML-7000 team recently crossed a major milestone with the on-going engineering redesign of the IUA. The project is moving from photometric and reliability testing phase at the WJHTC, to field level testing at select high failure rate sites across the NAS. The chosen configuration for field testing incorporates many of the modifications and improved parts initially recommend by the AML-7000 engineering staff. In fact, the AML design currently has over 2,300 hours of operation without failure at the WJHTC, where it is being tested and run continuously in the lighting lab. This is impressive when you consider that the target reliability goal of the redesign was only 1,000 hours, and many NAS sites were experiencing failures within the first week of operation on the current approved hardware configuration.
The second level engineering group from the Navigation & Landing Systems Team (AJW-143) has taken over testing responsibility, and the next phase of field testing is expected to last approximately 90-180 days. During this phase of testing, many different parameters including facility power installation, environmental impacts, and Airway Transportation Systems (ATSS) procedures will be investigated and validated. If all goes as planned, the National Change Proposal (NCP) will be ready for approval by the end of summer and AML will finally be able to ship out the new and improved REIL IUAs to those in Technical Operations. The team expects to see an immediate increase in performance of the product and an elimination of unfilled customer orders, which is likely to dramatically improve customer satisfaction especially for those who have been patiently waiting for these much needed improvements.
