Why don't airliners have fog lights?

Question

Then they could go screaming about like a bat out of hell like all the other clowns who need to go at top speed all the time.

Answer 1

I know this is supposed to be a joke, but the real reason they dont is because the airport minimums keep commercial flight from taking off or landing in less than a certain amount of visibility.
At the bottom of every instrument plate, there is a box that gives the landing minimums for every class of aircraft, by the type of instruments they have on board.
Not all airports have fancy class 3 landing equipment, so even if a class 3 capable airliner came in for a landing, it would be held to the same visibility as the highest class of landing the airport can accomidate.

Answer 2

Fog lights would be of no use to an aircraft approaching an airport with fog, that is a reported visibility of 1000 metres or less. The aircraft is guided by Approach Radar to the Instrument Landing System which the crew then follow either by flying manually or using an autoland system with a typical approach speed before touchdown of about 120 knots, depending on type of aircraft.

Aircraft are fitted with navigation lights, strobe lights so they can be seen by other aircraft and landing lights to aid touchdown at night and also so trhey can be seen more easily by the Tower controller at night

Answer 3

Are you kidding? I live close to the airport. All the airliners have the mandatory lights and they must have them in the specific sites so you can take a look up and figure out if they are coming or going etc. When landing, they turn more lights on that look like high beam head lights or search lights but not really. Besides, they dont really need them as the runway is lighted up like a christmas tree in July.
The residents around airports already suffer from the take off noise so the airliners kind of turn down the engine noises on approach.

Answer 4

Front fog lights on cars are only really useful in really thick fog - they are designed to give low, wide-spread illumination very close to the front of the car in situations when headlamps just reflect off the fog, reducing the drivers vision. They do not penetrate very far ahead.
If you have to rely on your front fog lamps for forward vision, then your maximum safe speed for the available vision is probably less than 20mph.
Planes take off and land at around 120mph. Fog lamps cannot provide the necessary vision for such speeds - any lamp that penetrates far enough will create severe reflective glare.

Answer 5

Heavy jets use landing lights, taxi lights, and ground floodlights for visibility during landing. Since fog is next to the ground, it is not an issue in flight. A pilot must be able to see the airport at a predetermined distance (Catagory 1, 2. or 3 landings). Landing/taxi and ground flood lights are normally selected off except for pattern/approach/or landing (controled airspace).

Answer 6

Aircraft DO NOT have "fog lights" because in fog (or any clouds for that matter) light is scattered and can be detrimental to a pilots eyes.

The need to see runway lights is more important than piercing through the fog with bright lights.

Answer 7

What a good question and a lot of good ansewers the way i understang it is that they have landing lights and TAXI lights basicly when planes are below 10,000 feet they MUST have Landing lights on these on they are also knowen as ANTI COLLIDE lights. When a plane is TAXIING they MUST have TAXI lights swiched ON this is also so that they can see the taxi ways and other aircrafts however aircrafts would mainly rely on there own RADAR and ATC (AIR TRAFIC CONTROL) who also have a very good radar i hope this helps.

Answer 8

Because front fog lights are not really used as fog lights these days, they are fitted to cars in order to look 'sporty' and mostly used by BMW 3 series drivers who want to look 'cool' and dazzle everyone off the road when it is not foggy

Answer 9

In fog aircraft use autoland, the problem is when they are on the ground taxing, it's difficult for the tower to follow their path as they have no visual reference. They need to restrict the number of landings to reduce movement and avoid the likely-hood of collision.

Answer 10

Because they don't fly in fog! Ask any passenger who tried to fly out of Liverpool, Manchester, Heathrow or Gatwick in the last 2 or 3 days!