Aircraft Landing Lights?

So my '68 Monza will be soon gracing my presence here within the next month. Since it used to be my dads, there are a lot of custom things that he did to the car.

One of the things that he did was put Aircraft Landing Lights in place for the brights. He had redone the wiring and added a relay to accommodate the lights. I know they aren't legal, but was this a common thing back in the day with cars with quad 5.75" headlights?

I'm not planning on getting rid of them, but I was just curious if I'm not alone.

Mongo would love those

I've got very vivid memories of my father putting them in an Alfa GTV in my youth.

I honestly believe you would be better off with a modern lighting package. The lighting pattern from the aircraft lights will likely do little more than irritate other drivers.

In reply to Mr_Estrotica:

Well I live out in the country with miles and miles of two lane black top. I have a feeling that the Aircraft Landing Lights would help more than regular brights.

Who cares about other drivers.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Who cares about other drivers.

Spoken as another driver.

You're a dick.

I can see the value of a wider lighting pattern--especially in hilly, rural areas. The Hella 500 "pencil beam" driving lights aren't of that much help when deer are flinging themselves into your path.

I wouldn't say that they were common, but I remember reading about a '70 Chevelle that had them in Hot Rod, probably around 1983.

Whelen has done a lot of work on LED aircraft lighting. If you're going to blow past DOT legality, why not check them out? Something else; a lot of aircraft external lighting has an MTBUR that you may not like. I found this link, see what you think;

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2587085

I've driven Opel Mantas with one of the high beam bulbs swapped out for a 250w landing light and it was pretty good from the driver's seat. I had the drivers side swapped out and the beam aimed so it hit the ground just beyond where the regular high beam ended and splashed out in front from there.

The beam on those is so tight that with any angle at all to the right they won't throw a lot of light into oncoming traffic. Certainly less than a Ford pickup. And that is only if you don't dim them, since the low beams are regular bulbs.

If you decide to ditch the lights, they would nicely fit atop my F150.

Mr_Estrotica wrote: The lighting pattern from the aircraft lights will likely do little more than irritate other drivers.

If you're leaving your brights on with oncoming traffic, then you're just irritating drivers no matter what the lighting package.

pres589 wrote: Whelen has done a lot of work on LED aircraft lighting. If you're going to blow past DOT legality, why not check them out? Something else; a lot of aircraft external lighting has an MTBUR that you may not like. I found this link, see what you think; http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2587085

Did you read the whole thread? $600 each...

pres589 wrote: Whelen has done a lot of work on LED aircraft lighting. If you're going to blow past DOT legality, why not check them out? Something else; a lot of aircraft external lighting has an MTBUR that you may not like. I found this link, see what you think; http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2587085

the claim is ~ 5000 hrs continuous use .... if you broke that down into some kind of expected automotive use ... say 3hr per night, that would get you a bit less than 2 yrs service ... more or less depending on how many hrs per night (and how many nights) you used them

In reply to Ian F:

Go check out some of the WARN light prices.

In reply to N Sperlo:

Just did... not that bad... ~$500/set for HID spots or floods. Coming from the mtn biking world, paying for high quality lights doesn't phase me, but $600/ea for bulbs alone took me off guard.

I wonder if anyone has come up with a good LED dual-mode 7" round equivalent... It would be nice to upgrade the lights on LBC's without having to go through adding relays and whatnot...

My old Alfa GTV had them. They were bright but I rarely got to use them. It was somewhat common and an inexpensive upgrade when not a lot of choices were readily available.

truck-lite.com has 7" round LED headlights. They work great. I have one on my bike. About two bills each.

One of the car magazines (C&D?) had an article on a sleeper "Banzai Runner" Cadillac Seville with an aircraft landing light hidden by the rear license plate. The plate flipped down when the light came on.

For "high speed backing". Uh huh.

In reply to Ian F:

Are you surprised aircraft parts are expensive? I used to be when I first started working in the industry... $600 for a light sounds like a pretty fair price. They've also come down a lot, like $230 each; https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/whelenpar362.php?clickkey=6390

In reply to wbjones: Did you notice the part where the GE bulbs are rated for 10 hours? And this is a lot more? And wattage draw is so low that you don't have to add a parallel circuit to actually light the thing? I don't know what an H4 bulb is normally rated for, so I checked it;

http://www.amazon.com/Sylvania-9003-XtraVision-Halogen-Headlight/dp/B0012UK3M2

~850 hour rating, and that's a respected brand I think. So, you know, that's all whatever.

LEDs have come a very long way in a short amount of time.

pres589 wrote: In reply to Ian F: Are you surprised aircraft parts are expensive? .

No, I'm not... but spending $1200 on high-beam lights for a car sounds a bit excessive. $230 ea. could work, though... if it was that much an issue.

Would these fit in an E30?

pres589 wrote: In reply to Ian F: Are you surprised aircraft parts are expensive? I used to be when I first started working in the industry... $600 for a light sounds like a pretty fair price. They've also come down a lot, like $230 each; https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/whelenpar362.php?clickkey=6390 In reply to wbjones: Did you notice the part where the GE bulbs are rated for 10 hours? And this is a lot more? And wattage draw is so low that you don't have to add a parallel circuit to actually light the thing? I don't know what an H4 bulb is normally rated for, so I checked it; http://www.amazon.com/Sylvania-9003-XtraVision-Halogen-Headlight/dp/B0012UK3M2 ~850 hour rating, and that's a respected brand I think. So, you know, that's all whatever.

didn't realize that ... seems like they last longer than that

(thank you for posting the knowledge for the rest of us ... especially doing so in such a friendly/polite way)

In reply to wbjones:

I'm not sure if I was polite or not (not joking, I re-read it and I can't even tell). I've had a horrible weekend and am dead tired from insomnia post-burglary of my home late Saturday night. If I was rude, I apologize, honestly.

Wow those LED units are expensive.

If I chose to keep them (which I probably will) I'll stick to $11 250w units.

Did anybody notice that they were $200 each, not $600?