"John Carrier" wrote in message
...

"Mike W." wrote in message
...
Is anyone here familiar with carrier-based aircraft operations?

A wee bit.

My first question is, on naval aircraft, what are the three colored
lights
for on the front? Usually mounted on the front landing gear, three
different
colors.

They're called approach lights. They indicate aircraft angle of attack for
the Landing Signal Officers (typically tied into the landing gear position
... won't illuminate without 3 down and locked ... and the tailhook ...
flash if the hook isn't down with the correct selection of the
field/carrier
switch). Amber indicates on speed + or - 1 unit angle of attack, Green
indicates slow, Red indicates fast. Very useful to monitor the approach
(primarily at night, there are better cues in the daytime).

Also, last time I was out in San Diego to visit my brother, we visited
the
U.S.S. Midway. Among the aircraft on display was a jet trainer, couldn't
tell you the type. Seems like the thing had lights everywhere, including
both red and green nav. lights on each wingtip? What is the purpose of
this?

Haven't been there, but the web site indicates they have the T-2C Buckeye.
It has just been retired from intermediate strike training.

R / John

Thanks, John. I seemed to have gotten a consistent answer on the first
question (angle-of-attack lights) but the red and green nav light on each
wing still has me puzzled. Perhaps it's a training tool for night flying.
For example, the lights are reversed from normal (port green, starboard red)
then a trainer in another plane asks the student, "OK which way is that
plane flying?" Or maybe to confuse the enemy in the ground?