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The true airspeed (TAS; also KTAS, for knots true airspeed) of an aircraft is the speed of the aircraft relative to the air mass through which it is flying. The true airspeed is important information for accurate navigation of an aircraft. Traditionally it is measured using an analogue TAS indicator, but as GPS has become available for civilian ...
Indicated airspeed (IAS) is the airspeed of an aircraft as measured by its pitot-static system [1] and displayed by the airspeed indicator (ASI). [2] This is the pilots' primary airspeed reference. This value is not corrected for installation error, instrument error, or the actual encountered air density, [2] being instead calibrated to always ...
Equivalent airspeed. In aviation, equivalent airspeed (EAS) is calibrated airspeed (CAS) corrected for the compressibility of air at a non-trivial Mach number. It is also the airspeed at sea level in the International Standard Atmosphere at which the dynamic pressure is the same as the dynamic pressure at the true airspeed (TAS) and altitude at ...
for navigation, CAS is traditionally calculated as one of the steps between indicated airspeed and true airspeed; for aircraft control, CAS (and EAS) are the primary reference points, since they describe the dynamic pressure acting on aircraft surfaces regardless of density, altitude, wind, and other conditions.
Airspeed is commonly given in knots (kn). Since 2010, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) recommends using kilometers per hour (km/h) for airspeed (and meters per second for wind speed on runways), but allows using the de facto standard of knots, and has no set date on when to stop.
Total air temperature is an essential input to an air data computer in order to enable the computation of static air temperature and hence true airspeed. The relationship between static and total air temperatures is given by: where: static air temperature, SAT (kelvins or degrees Rankine) total air temperature, TAT (kelvins or degrees Rankine)
Mach number is a function of temperature and true airspeed. Aircraft flight instruments, however, operate using pressure differential to compute Mach number, not temperature. Assuming air to be an ideal gas, the formula to compute Mach number in a subsonic compressible flow is found from Bernoulli's equation for M < 1 (above): [9]
Airspeed indicator. The airspeed indicator (ASI) or airspeed gauge is a flight instrument indicating the airspeed of an aircraft in kilometres per hour (km/h), knots (kn or kt), miles per hour (MPH) and/or metres per second (m/s). The recommendation by ICAO is to use km/h, however knots (kt) is currently the most used unit.