High frequency adapts fluorescent lamps to aircraft

FLUORESCENT LAMPS, because of their high efficiency and good color characteristics, are ideal for lighting airplane cabins, especially because many ships are equipped with 400-cycle 120-volt generating plants. Efficiency of low-voltage fluorescent lamps at 400 cycles is approximately 20 per cent greater than at 60 cycles, or about four times as great as the efficiency of incandescent lamps ordinarily used in airplanes. Power factor is roughly 7 1/2 per cent higher at 400 cycles than at 60; lamp control apparatus becomes simple, small, and relatively light in weight. Using the lamps at this increased efficiency makes possible reductions in the weight of wiring, power plant, and fuel that must be carried for operating the power plant. Probably these weight reductions offset the added weight of fluorescent lamps and controls. As planes increase in size, and consequently have greater lighting loads, fluorescent lamps should contribute to reductions in both weight and operating cost.