Runway Lighting & Airfield Electrical (AGL) · clarifiers
Airfield ground lighting is the most safety-critical electrical system on an airport, and a "lighting" RFQ is really a question about which fixture, on which part of the airfield, driven by which power/control architecture, certified to whose standard. A medium-intensity LED runway edge light and a GPS-synced obstruction beacon are both "lights" but share almost no suppliers, certs or integration constraints. Before any AGL supplier can quote, four things have to be pinned: which subsystem and intensity class you actually need, how it's mounted and powered, whether it has to flash or talk to your existing control/monitoring spine, and which regulator's standard governs the airfield. Once those are clear the shortlist narrows from "every lighting OEM" to the handful that fit. The questions below are the curated AGL-specific clarifiers — the shared commercial spine (quantity, delivery, Incoterms) is handled separately.
Which AGL subsystem and intensity class do you need? AGL is a dozen near-unrelated product lines under one word. Runway edge (L-861), centreline/TDZ (L-850), threshold/end (L-862), taxiway centreline (L-852), stop-bars and runway guard lights (L-852G/L-849), PAPI (L-880/881), approach (ALSF/MALSR), obstruction (L-810/864/865) and the constant-current regulator each have a distinct supplier set, photometric spec and intensity class (LIRL/MIRL/HIRL). Naming the subsystem + intensity is what turns 'lighting' into a quotable line item.
Select… Runway edge / centreline / threshold / touchdown-zone (L-850/L-861/L-862) Taxiway centreline / edge / stop-bar / runway guard light (L-852/L-849) PAPI / approach lighting system (L-880/L-881 / ALSF/MALSR) Obstruction / hazard-beacon lighting (L-810/L-864/L-865) Constant Current Regulator (CCR) / control & monitoring system (ILCMS) Mixed package across a runway/taxiway rehabilitation Inset (in-pavement), elevated, or solar/portable? The same photometric output ships in three physically incompatible bodies. Inset fixtures need an 8"/12" IEC seating pot cored into the pavement and an L-823 base connector; elevated fixtures need a frangible coupling and a foundation; solar/portable units carry their own battery + RF control and skip the buried cable run entirely. This choice dictates civil works, lead time and which products are even eligible — an inset taxiway light cannot substitute for an elevated one.
Select… Inset / in-pavement (IEC seating pot, L-823 connector) Elevated (frangible-mounted on a base) Solar / portable / temporary (self-powered, RF-controlled) Mix of inset and elevated How is it powered and controlled, and what must it flash or sync with?— unblocks quoting This is the make-or-break compatibility question. Most airfield circuits are series-fed from a Constant Current Regulator at 6.6 A with L-823 isolation transformers and an addressable control-and-monitoring system (ILCMS/ALCMS over Modbus) — a mains-fed or stand-alone solar fixture won't drop into that loop. And for obstruction/approach beacons the hard requirement is GPS flash-synchronisation: a new beacon must flash in unison with the lights already on the structure, and GPS-UTC sync (vs a proprietary wired daisy-chain) is what makes a replacement brand-agnostic — exactly the constraint that stranded the discontinued FTS 350i-2 replacement. Get this wrong and the fixture is electrically or operationally incompatible no matter how good the photometrics are.
Select… Series circuit 6.6 A from a CCR, must integrate with our existing ILCMS/ALCMS monitoring Series circuit 6.6 A from a CCR, standalone (no central monitoring) Mains / DC powered (parallel circuit, not CCR-fed) Solar / self-powered, RF or autonomous control Obstruction/approach flash heads — MUST GPS-sync with existing lights on the structure Greenfield — no existing power or control spine yet Which regulator's standard governs this airfield? AGL certification is region-driven and the standards are not interchangeable. FAA AC 150/5345 uses L-designations (L-861, L-864) and ETL/Intertek certification; ICAO Annex 14 (the global civil baseline, dominant in the GCC) specifies by light type and Annex paragraph; EASA CS-ADR-DSN governs European aerodromes; and national regimes — CAA CAP 168, Transport Canada CAR 621/TP 312, NATO STANAG 3316 for military fields — add their own gates. The obstruction-beacon class (FAA L-864 red vs ICAO Medium Intensity Type B) is set entirely by which authority you answer to. Naming the governing standard eliminates every fixture that isn't certified to it.
Select… ICAO Annex 14 (global / GCC civil baseline) FAA AC 150/5345 (L-designations, ETL-certified) EASA CS-ADR-DSN (European aerodrome) CAA CAP 168 (UK) / Transport Canada CAR 621 / TP 312 Military — NATO STANAG 3316 / UFC Multiple authorities (dual civil + military or cross-border) What approach category must the lighting support? Approach category sets the photometric performance, redundancy and monitoring obligations of the whole installation. CAT II/III low-visibility operations demand high-intensity fixtures, tighter beam tolerances, individual-fixture status monitoring and stricter availability than CAT I or non-instrument runways — a fixture certified only for non-precision use is disqualified on a CAT III runway regardless of its L-designation. This separates a basic VFR edge-light buy from a precision-approach package.
Select… CAT III (lowest-visibility precision) CAT II CAT I Non-precision / non-instrument / VFR Heliport / FATO-TLOF Not sure yet Optional — these help the supplier quote accurately first time (condition, certification and delivery especially).
