Will more lamps per aircraft be needed due to loss in flood Lumens or were incans overkill?
We have only sold our Par-64 systems for crop dusting type aircraft (airplanes and Helicopters both). AirTractor and other Ag spray aircraft use these for Night Ops. They are retractable units on the underside of the wing.
You would be surprised how much crop spraying nation wide, occurs at night, lots of it (a sizable percentage). There are a few reasons for this (not in any particular order): 1. The daytime summer can be stiflingly hot for the pilot, especially in the central valley of California and Arizona. 2. They can carry bigger loads (less trips) of chemicals at night, when the air is not so hot and less dense (called "density altitude"). 3. The bees are not out pollinating at night, killing bees is not a good thing in the Agriculture business. They do end up hitting some owls (not often) and bats though instead of bees. 4. You will be surprised at this one. There are people who try to get sprayed on purpose so they can file a lawsuit against the spraying companies. Its MUCH harder for people to see exactly where the planes and spray helicopters are going at night, so this pretty much eliminates that problem.
Added: (Reminder from BVH) 5. Less surface winds (on the average) more accurate spray application and better spray deposition.
For the crop dusters not overkill, they need to see whats ahead well before its a "problem", power-lines, hills fences etc., when they are flying "on the deck". They don't use them for flood purposes, so its not overkill. As far as I know, these Par-64's are mostly needed for spot beam (landing).
These current aviation LED's are not likely to do the job as currently configured. We have a solution in the works for LED in a Par-36 size first, then a Par-46 and then possibly in a Par-64. When we do it, "the lumens will be there". I can't say more at this time, we will unveil on our website in the next 3 to 6 months. We have been working on it for about 10 months, prototypes basically finished.