PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - A probably stupid question from a non-pilot
Old 20th Nov 2011, 22:56
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Piltdown Man
 
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Wings care little about ground speed or which way is up. They work only by an appropriate amount of air flowing over them arriving at a sensible angle. To measure the speed you need to sample the air arriving from the front - a pitot tube. The difference between the air pressure in the pitot tube and the static air pressure is termed 'airspeed'. You could measure the same thing by generating a suction (like a venturi) but this is even more prone to errors as any surface contamination (bugs, dead birds, ice, tape etc.) would lead to a suction which would no longer be proportional to airspeed. Good question though.

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