Optical landing system

Okay, so imagine you're in a plane and you want to land it. But landing can be tricky - you don't want to crash or overshoot the runway! So how do you know when to start making the plane land on the runway? That's where the optical landing system comes in.

The optical landing system is a bunch of special lights that are set up next to the runway. They're called "meatball" lights because they kind of look like meatballs. When a plane is getting ready to land, the pilot looks out the window and can see these meatball lights. If the plane is coming in too high or too low, the meatball lights will look red. But if the plane is coming in just right, the meatball lights will look green.

But wait, there's more! Sometimes the weather is bad and it's hard to see the meatball lights. That's when the optical landing system also has special cameras that can see the plane and help the pilot know when to land. These cameras show the pilot a video of what's happening outside the plane so they can see the meatball lights even if it's foggy or dark outside.

So basically, the optical landing system helps the pilot land the plane safely by showing them the right way to come in for a landing.