Avionics News March 2017 - 40

LUMA TECHNOLOGIES
Continued from page 39

aircraft industry. According to Maxwell,
the key to his effort meant starting with
a clean slate and tailoring the systems'
design and the manufacturing facilities
to meet the specific requirements of
customers. This mandated the need for
ISO/AS9100 and FAA-certifiable facilities
and procedures, as well as embracing
lean manufacturing concepts allowing the company to
respond quickly in an evolving market.
From the beginning, Maxwell and his staff embarked
on the development of an array of cockpit-system
products in the ensuing year.
Integrated display systems; low-profile switches;
cockpit controls of a wide array; annunciators. All
of these products, save the cockpit controls, share a
common denominator: LEDs providing the illumination
source - in place of incandescent bulbs.
And the company boasts an impressive array of
supplemental type certificates for a dozen different
airframe models with models from another four airframe
companies in the queue - and more ideas to come.
At last year's National Business Aviation Association
Convention in Orlando Maxwell unveiled the latest
additions to Luma Technologies' product line, adding
Cessna's 208 and 208B Caravan to its growing list of
certified installations of the 4000 Series LED Caution
Warning Panels.
Maxwell also announced the addition of the
Beechcraft 1900C to the list of approved models
covered under the STC for installing the LED Caution
Advisory and Warning panels on numerous King Air
platforms.
Along the way, the company added 90-series King
Airs to its approved model list STC, where it joins a
lengthy list of airframes for which Lumatech systems are
approved. Consider this list:
*	 1900C and 1900D: Glareshield Warning Panel;
Lower Caution Advisory Panel; Landing Gear
Status Annunciator.
*	 King Air C90, 200, 300 and 350i: Glareshield
Warning Panel; Lower Caution Advisory Panel;
Glareshield Washlight Kit.
*	 BeechJet 400A and 400XP: Integrated Master
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march

2017

Caution Warning Panel; nine-station Glareshield
Caution Advisory Panel.
*	 Caravans: Integrated Caution Warning Panel.
*	 Bell 206 and 206L: Glareshield Caution Warning
Panel.
*	 Bell 214/412: Integrated Master Caution Warning
Panel.
Also on the list: projects for the CASA C-212, ATR 42
and ATR 72; select models of Cessna's Citation business
jet line; and various Falcon business jets.
Maxwell isn't focused solely on the retrofit market.
Luma Technologies also has a foothold in the forward-fit
or OEM market with the 400XPR and Nextant 400 XTi
and G90XT.
All of these products use LEDs for their illumination
sources.
Retrofits that fit ...
or plug-and-play your troubles away
It's amazing to look in the cockpit of many 1970s,
1980s through 2000 jets and propjets to find mechanical
switch panels and annunciator panels - both still
illuminated with tiny, fragile incandescent light bulbs.
Ask any maintenance technician or the flight crew
of such aircraft about those panel mainstays. The
technicians likely offer in response an earful about
the service demands of these small, but critical, panel
components.
The past decade brought both Luma Technologies and
its new, more-reliable illumination sources - and new
switching technologies capable of ending the problems
inherent to the older technology components.
At his press conference during the NBAA Convention,
Maxwell energetically demonstrated the durability of his
company's products - by repeatedly slamming different
units - illuminated - down onto a table. Not a flicker.
Not a flash. Not a failure.
Just steady, even light.
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News March 2017
