Non airplane related unfortunately, but I had driveway lights that stopped working. It seems like the buried cable broke somewhere at least partly because just standard romex was used.
Instead of re-running the wire to the end of my driveway, I decided to put a low voltage system in.
It uses a 12V battery, solar panel, and z-wave relay to allow it to be controlled from inside the house. I already have a bunch of z-wave switches, so that part was easy.
The solar panel is not the most optimally positioned, but hopefully it will get enough light to keep the battery topped off. It is a 30 W panel, and the system should only consume about 7 W with the lights on, and less than 1 W with the lights off.
The kids get on the bus when it is still pretty dark out, so light at the end of our driveway is a good thing.