Englewood, Colorado-based aircraft engineering and certification firm Peregrine has developed a supplemental type certificate (STC) to improve exterior lighting performance and reliability for the Beechcraft 390 Premier I/IA. Working on behalf of Kansas-based Premier specialist Wichita Aerospace, Peregrine created this STC to replace the entire pair of wingtip light clusters including navigation, recognition and strobes with modern LED technology. Additionally, the STC covers the replacement of the original lens and housing in the tail cone with a single, dual function LED.

Reusing the existing clear lenses, the STC replaces the entire wingtip light assembly. The existing power supplies, strobes and incandescent bulbs are removed, yielding a load reduction of over 28 amps and weight reduction of over eight pounds. This simple, robust installation can be accomplished in under a day by an A&P.

“Working with Wichita Aerospace to complete the certification and STC process further demonstrates our focus on streamlining engineering and certification for the benefit of our customers, allowing their resources to focus on their customer and business needs,” says Peregrine president and founder David Rankin.

“The Whelen Aerospace Technologies (WAT) designed replacement lights require no external components and use newer technology LEDs,” says Wichita Aerospace managing director Christophe Maskell. “Installation of the WAT replacement lights will result in a significant reduction in equipment weight, electrical bus loading and maintenance costs for the aircraft owner/operator.”

The installation package for the WA 390 LED STC Premier wingtip and tail cone LED upgrade is available directly from Wichita Aerospace. Peregrine provided all engineering, test and certification data needed to obtain the supplemental type certificate approval.

The STC installation kit includes the new Whelen lighting assemblies mounted to new sheet metal brackets and a pre-wired harness. The Devore lights, which are replaced by this STC, were designed in the 1990s, used older flash tube or incandescent bulbs, were inefficient and required external components to function. Of additional concern to owners and operators is that the original lights are no longer available from the manufacturer.