Great picture Chad,
I'm thinkin that with NVS, the lights are blue? Not sure, but it would
make sense. I know before NVS came out the formation lights were all
green, but this would overdrive and blind NVG's. Wouldn't changing the
lights to blue be part of the NVS mod, or do they just keep em turned
off?

On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 17:53:26 GMT, Chad Irby wrote:

In article ,
"T3" wrote:

One evening about 7 years ago (around twilight) as I was docking my
boat, a single F/A18 was dropping to attack altitude at what appeared
to be mil speed and as he came by(approx200ft on the left) I noticed
what appeared to be an iridescent green box just forward and under of
the canopy on the left side. As a 30 year aircraft mechanic for Pan
Am it has always bothered me that I had no valid explanation for it.

Look at this photo:

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/f-18-bnd980501219.jpg

See the three rectangles just under the number "731" on the nose?

Those are electroluminescent lights, used for formation flying at night.
They put out a mild greenish-yellow glow.

They're related to the EL backlights seen on watches.