Orange/yellow tail light on post war aircraft.

[BTromblay]

Most post-war aircraft, including T-6G, C-45, AD Sky Raider and T-28 to name a few have an orange/yellow light mounted in the rudder, vertical or tail of the airplane. In addition to this is the standard white tail light. The T-6 manual shows that the orange tail light flashes in conjunction with the cowl light. I have detailed schematics of this and I understand how it is installed and wired into the airplane but here is the question. What was the orange/yellow lights used for? Are there any pilot manuals or writen procedures on the use of these lights?

Thanks,

Bill

[T-28mike]

On the T-28, the position light system consists of 4 position lights. Red, Green on wings, and orange (actually called out as Yellow) and White in the tail. They can be controlled in any of three ways: Off, On Steady and Flash which will flash the Red, Green and White simultaniously, and the Yellow opposite to the others. They are also equipped with a bright or dim function. AFAIK they are used for general navigation and position indication as on any other aircraft. The dim and flash function is available to aid in formation flying. Some aircraft had a "key switch" that allowed you to flash the lights using a button allowing the pilot to communicate via morse code using the position (and on other aircraft the formation) lights.

[T-28mike]

Interesting. I flew 28's in the mid-60's and I'm reasonably certain we didn't have any lights like these. The '28's were used in the Training Command and the formation flying we did there was strictly daytime. Is it possible these lights were added at some later date? I've never seen one on a '28. The Air Force used the D models in Viet Nam that had some differences from the Navy models (nose wheel steering for one) so could they have used these lights? We had only the usual green/red and white aft lights and we couldn't dim or flash them.

Thanks

IIRC, the yellow were deleted from some of the NAVY birds during an ASC. (I think the same one that replaced the fuselage "white" I.D. lights with the red anti collision lights). The Navy T-28's Rudder retain the provision for a second lamp, and the Air Force birds I have certified I have had to replace the yellow lens with a white for compliance, as well as " disable" the dimming and flash provisions.

I remember seeing them on some of the modern military birds that I have moved around the countryas well. F-14, F-15 etc.

[flypa38]

Too new at the crew chief thing to tell you exactly what they're for (I''m pretty sure nav lights), but our '58-'60 T model KC-135's still have them and the white and yellow alternate flashes. Just changed the bulb for one recently so 100% sure they are still installed.
Not sure if this helps at all other than confirming that they do exist!
Johnny