Patriot Taxiway Industries currently provides a KC-135 Portable Cargo Lighting Kit which is a transportable non-permanent LED Internal Cargo Lighting system. Patriot Taxiways KC-135 Portable Cargo Lighting Systems have been delivered to US Air Force, US Air Force Reserve and US Air National Guard customers operating the KC-135R. We worked with the Boeing Company KC-135 support group in San Antonio on a response for equipping the entire KC-135 fleet in response to USAF KC-135 R/T INTERNAL LIGHTING RFI FA8105-ICL-KC-135(2). We are registered in the Boeing supplier database.

This system was developed in response to a request from the Kansas Air National Guard seeking to improve the lighting on the KC-135 for Aeromedical mission. Tinker Air Force Base Engineering was engaged through the development process to ensure the requirements of placing a lighting system on the KC-135R/T aircraft were met.

Several challenges were addressed in the Patriot Taxiway lighting system development to meet the customer requirements. These include:

• No physical changes to the aircraft
  • No holes to be drilled
  • No modifications to existing electrical wiring bundles
  • No interference with existing aircraft systems
• Zone control of the lighting
  • Master Control dims all lights in the system
  • Station Control allows individual dimming of each light fixture
• Meeting all engineering requirements for electromagnetic interference, environmental testing, shock and vibration and explosion proof with testing by an accredited test facility
• Portable and easy to assemble
  • System is housed in three cases to keep the maximum weight under 75 lbs to allow a single crew member to lift the case through the forward hatch.
  • Assembly time
    • 30 minutes with three trained crew chiefs
    • 45 minutes with two trained crew chiefs