Table of Contents
How is angle of attack measured on aircraft?
Angle of attack (AOA) is the angle between the oncoming air or relative wind and a reference line on the airplane or wing. Sometimes, the reference line is a line connect- ing the leading edge and trailing edge at some average point on the wing. This angle is dis- played on the attitude indicator or artificial horizon.
How does inertial navigation system work?
An inertial navigation system (INS) is a navigation device that uses a computer, motion sensors (accelerometers) and rotation sensors (gyroscopes) to continuously calculate by dead reckoning the position, the orientation, and the velocity (direction and speed of movement) of a moving object without the need for …
What is the difference between IMU and INS?
IMU vs. What is the difference between INS and IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit)? An IMU is an assembly of at least 3 gyros and 3 accelerometers. INS is a system. It must have a computer or processor to calculate position and velocity using IMU outputs.
What is IMU sensor?
An IMU is a specific type of sensor that measures angular rate, force and sometimes magnetic field. IMUs are composed of a 3-axis accelerometer and a 3-axis gyroscope, which would be considered a 6-axis IMU. They can also include an additional 3-axis magnetometer, which would be considered a 9-axis IMU.
Does speed affect angle of attack?
An increase in speed or the angle of attack will increase both lift and drag. In level flight, lift must equal the weight of the aircraft. The speed and angle of attack are interchangeable to a point—therefore, for every airspeed, there is a corresponding angle of attack that will produce the same amount of lift.
How do fighter jets perform good and quick maneuvers with small wings?
How does a fighter jet perform good and quick maneuvers with such small wings? Fighter jets like the F-16, F-15, etc. have wings smaller than the length of the fuselage and can perform great maneuvers very quickly while an airliner with a long wingspan takes a lot of time to perform these kind of maneuvers.
How does the angle of attack affect an airplane?
The higher the angle of attack, the more lift is generated beneath the airplane. That’s why airplane wings are tilted with the leading edge pointed up relative to the oncoming wind. This forces wind to ‘pile up’ beneath the wings. The velocity of wind moving above the wings is greater than the velocity of the wind beneath them.
Why do fighter jets have so much wing area?
Many jet fighters, esp. the F15 as noted in several answer, generate lift from the fuselage, significantly increasing effective wing area. The entire wingtip-to-wingtip span is wing, because there’s no non-wing fuselage in the middle.
Why are fighter planes more maneuverable than planes?
Stability Most of the fighter aircraft today are designed to be unstable. This makes the aircraft respond to control inputs much more quickly compared to the airliners (which are usually not unstable in the roll axis). This means that the combat aircraft are capable of maneuvering much more quickly.