PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - sphere towed on test fights?
View Single Post
Old 22nd Sep 2002, 04:51
  #5 (permalink)  
Mad (Flt) Scientist
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: La Belle Province
Posts: 2,179
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Personally I don't use them nowadays, I prefer to do my ASI calibrations at a safe altitude against GPS without hanging things off the aeroplane. But, it's been a standard piece of FT kit since the 1940s and possibly before.

I'd be surprised to have one fitted for a first flight, but if it was used, it'd certainly be quite early in the test programme.
G.

If you're calibrating airspeed with a GPS, what do you do about wind? Surely your GPS is sensing ground speed (or some inertial reference speed).

We routinely use noseboom/trailing cone for our first flights. After all, the PEs are not well known at that point. Of course, we have to use noseboom static sources near the ground, which aren't quite as good; but better than a relatively unknown ship system.
Mad (Flt) Scientist is offline