Emteq, of New Berlin, Wis., was awarded a contract by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for Phase I of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program to develop a rotor blade tip lighting system. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.
The company said the goal of this DoD SBIR program is to design and build a reliable, lightweight rotor blade tip lighting system that can be modulated to provide red, green and white navigation lights at the appropriate positions on the azimuth; a hover mode to clearly mark the complete rotor disk circumference to ground crew; and a low-observable, Night-Vision Goggle (NVG) compatible mode for night formation flight.
Phase I of this program is to determine, insofar as possible, the scientific, technical, and commercial merit and feasibility of ideas submitted under the SBIR Program. This phase occurs over six months. Phase II involves fabricating a full-scale version of the system to demonstrate the applicability of the system. Phase III transitions to a flight-qualified technology that the small business may offer to aircraft manufacturers for incorporation in experimental and/or production aircraft.