Made in America
I had to move around my emergency kit some last weekend (the truck version) and came across my emergency flashlight. I store it without batteries and have a fresh unopened set of batteries and the flashlight in an old sock, together.
Now, I love my Maglites. I love my little LED lights. I love my Surefire. That said, when I think “Flashlight” this is the image that comes to mind. .
The Brightstar is the quintessentail “original” Flashlight and they are as durable as a brick. They’re all plastic on the outside, which means they can be used inside electrical cabinets (Some older models had metal screws holding the switch on but I think that is now gone on all models) and a three D cell version costs $11 something. They are designed for industrial use- the light wands you see cops using and most airport ground people are usually brightstars. No, it doesn’t have high technology ultra super bright bulbs or whatever, but they work for about 19 hours before needing battery replacement.
Brightstar has moved up to some fancier models and they certainly do compete with the higher end flashlights in many arenas, but the original, ubiquitous BrightStar, still the familiar black and yellow, still damned near indestructible, is still Made in the USA. At $12, I find myself wondering why I don’t have a few more of these. Cross posted at ‘Made in America”
I’ve never had the opportunity to confirm it but an A&P mechanic I worked with at one time told a tale of an aircraft tech leaving a D-cell Maglite on top of an auxiliary power unit in a landing gear wheel well.
Short version: Maglite gets into landing gear linkage, prevents gear from extending. Plane lands gear up. Post-event investigation finds the Maglite in the linkage; linkage could not shear the metal body.
End result: A&Ps only allowed to use plastic body flashlights in certain areas of certain aircraft.
As I said at the beginning, this is third hand info, but sounds plausible.