Aircraft vertical stabilizer illumination light unit and method of operating aircraft vertical stabilizer illumination light unit

An aircraft vertical stabilizer illumination light unit (2), configured for being arranged in a rotatable horizontal stabilizer (102) of an aircraft (100) and for being oriented towards a vertical stabilizer (104) of the aircraft (100) for illuminating the vertical stabilizer (104), includes an LED group (4), having a plurality of LEDs, and an optical system (6), having at least one optical element (8, 9), the optical system (6) being associated with the LED group (4) for shaping an output light intensity distribution from the light emitted by the LED group (4). The LED group (4) and the optical system (6) are stationary within the aircraft vertical stabilizer illumination light unit (2), with each LED of the LED group (4) having a set position with respect to the optical system (6). At least some of the plurality of LEDs are independently controllable. The aircraft vertical stabilizer illumination light unit (2) is configured to be operated in a plurality of operating modes, with a respective subset of the p