An award-winning lightweight, portable landing light system that can be deployed rapidly and operated by remote control. It is also infrared-enabled, allowing for defence applications.
Technology Field
The special operations capability of the South African National Defence Force enlists a particular brand of soldier to operate under difficult circumstances. These operatives often require technology solutions of particular sophistication and precision. The scene is set for heightened creativity, discovery and invention. Chris Botha is a project manager and technician at the CSIR’s technology for special operations group. Together with his team, he designed and developed a product named CANDLE, a portable landing light system which won them international acclaim.
Business Opportunity
Seeking a licensee
Technology Description
The special operations capability of the South African National Defence Force enlists a particular brand of soldier to operate under difficult circumstances. These operatives often require technology solutions of particular sophistication and precision. The scene is set for heightened creativity, discovery and invention. Chris Botha is a project manager and technician at the CSIR’s technology for special operations group. Together with his team, he designed and developed a product named CANDLE, a portable landing light system which won them international acclaim.
Benefits & Advantages
The system is lightweight and can be carried as part of a paratrooper’s kit. It is rapidly set up to either mark a drop zone for paratroopers or to lay out a landing strip for aircraft with infrared or normal visible light. Its innovativeness lies in the fact that the lights are remote controlled and can be switched on and off either by operators on the ground or the pilot from as far away as 10 kilometres. CANDLE is most often used by paratroopers in peacekeeping operations, who perform a path-finding function, and who are dropped in areas where there is no landing strip. The system consists of 12 lights, each fitted with a transmitter/receiver with a remote control effective up to 600 metres and 200 metres between lights. With six lights on either side, a landing strip of a km and longer can be marked out. This means a plane the size of a Hercules transport aircraft can be guided with this system. When the aircraft approaches, the lights are switched on, and then switched off immediately once it has landed safely. Because it is infrared-enabled, the lights are only detected by night vision equipment and thus remain unseen with the naked eye. Initially required to assist defence force personnel in areas without sufficient air transport infrastructure, the system has also found civilian application among mining companies both in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent. The CSIR is in the process of upgrading the landing light system to include landward-based sensor systems to serve as an early warning system for protection, as well as a detection capability for intrusion into secure environments. The upgrading of this capability will ensure that the CSIR has an updated version ready for industrialisation with a partner under a licensing agreement. The portable landing light system was awarded a coveted International Soldier Technology Award in 2006, selected from a number of soldier modernisation programmes from around the world.
Inventors
Chris Botha
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, commonly known as the CSIR, is a world-class African research and development organisation established through an Act of Parliament in 1945. The CSIR undertakes directed, multidisciplinary research and technological innovation that contributes to the improved quality of life of South Africans.
The CSIR’s shareholder is the South African Parliament, held in proxy by the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation.
CSIR vision
We are accelerators of socio-economic prosperity in South Africa through leading innovation.
CSIR mission
Collaboratively innovating and localising technologies while providing knowledge solutions for the inclusive and sustainable advancement of industry and society.
CSIR values
CSIR values statement:
Our beliefs, principles and the impact we wish to make to improve the quality of life of South Africans are EPIC. Team CSIR pursues Excellence, celebrates People, personifies Integrity, and welcomes Collaboration.
Our mandate
“The objects of the CSIR are, through directed and particularly multi-disciplinary research and technological innovation, to foster, in the national interest and in fields which in its opinion should receive preference, industrial and scientific development, either by itself or in co-operation with principals from the private or public sectors, and thereby to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of the people of the Republic, and to perform any other functions that may be assigned to the CSIR by or under this Act.”
(Scientific Research Council Act 46 of 1988, amended by Act 71 of 1990)
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