Claims
- 1. An air data sensor system comprising first and second probes forming a pair of probes symmetrically mounted on opposite sides of an aircraft, the probes each having ports for sensing angle of attack and pitot pressure, each of the probes including instrumentation for providing electrical signals indicating the pressure at each of the ports on the respective probe, and providing local angle of attack at the probes as a function of differential pressure between the angle of attack sensing ports and the total pressure measurement, and a third probe mounted to have an axis thereof substantially on a center plane of the aircraft, said third probe having ports with axes lying on a plane perpendicular to the center plane of the aircraft to measure differences in pressure caused by the sideslip of the aircraft, said third probe having communication instrumentation for providing correction factors to compensate for sideslip effects on local angle of attack and local static pressure measurements at at least one of the first and second probes due to sideslip.
- 2. The air data sensing system of claim 1, wherein said third probe is mounted on an upper surface of the aircraft.
- 3. The air data sensing system of claim 1, wherein said third probe is mounted on a lower surface of the aircraft.
- 4. The air data sensing system of claim 1, wherein said third probe includes ports for independently measuring angle of attack in the center plane of the aircraft.
- 5. An air data sensing system for aircraft having a central plane that is substantially vertical during normal flight, a first probe and a second probe mounted on a common plane generally perpendicular to the central plane and on opposite sides of the aircraft, such that the probes are symmetrically mounted, each of said first and second probes including angle of attack sensing ports comprising an upper port and a lower port, and each probe having a forwardly facing port for measuring Pitot pressure, each of the probes having pressure sensors for delivering electrical signals representative of a pressure at each of the ports, and a third probe having a central axis, and mounted such that the central axis of the third probe is on the center plane of the aircraft, said third probe having ports that are positioned on opposite sides of, and at equal angles to the center plane of the aircraft, and the ports of the third probe defining a plane perpendicular to the center plane in the aircraft for measuring sideslip of the aircraft.
- 6. The air data sensing system of claim 5, wherein the third probe has a pitot pressure sensing port on an end thereof facing airflow.
- 7. The air data sensing system of claim 5, wherein each of the first, second and third probes has pressure sensors and processing circuitry supported on the probe.
- 8. The air data sensing system of claim 5, wherein there is a data bus between the processor circuitry of the first, second and third probes.
- 9. An air data sensing system for aircraft having a central plane that is substantially vertical during normal flight, a first probe and a second probe mounted on a common plane generally perpendicular to the central plane and on opposite sides of the aircraft, such that the probes are symmetrically mounted, each of said first and second probes including angle of attack sensing ports comprising an upper port and a lower port, and each probe having a forwardly facing port for measuring Pitot pressure, each of the probes having pressure sensors for delivering electrical signals representative of a pressure at each of the ports, and a third sensor having a central axis, and mounted such that the central axis of the third sensor is on the center plane of the aircraft, said third sensor providing an indication of angle of sideslip of the aircraft.
- 10. The air data sensing system of claim 9, wherein the third sensor comprises a probe having ports that are positioned on opposite sides of, and at equal angles to the center plane of the aircraft, and the ports of the third probe defining a plane perpendicular to the center plane in the aircraft for measuring sideslip of the aircraft.
- 11. The air data sensing system of claim 10, wherein the third probe has a pitot pressure sensing port on an end thereof facing airflow.
- 12. The air data system of claim 9, wherein said third sensor comprises an airflow sensitive vane having an axis oriented to measure local angle of sideslip.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] Cross reference is made to U.S. application Ser. No. 09/___,___, entitled “MULTI-FUNCTION AIR DATA PROBES USING NEURAL NETWORK FOR SIDESLIP COMPENSATION,” (Attorney Docket B04.12-0051), U.S. application Ser. No. 09/___,___, entitled “METHOD TO CALCULATE SIDESLIP ANGLE AND CORRECT STATIC PRESSURE FOR SIDESLIP EFFECTS USING INERTIAL INFORMATION,” (Attorney Docket No. B04.12-0052) and U.S. application Ser. No. 09/___,___ , entitled “ITERATIVE METHOD OF AIRCRAFT SIDESLIP COMPENSATION FOR MULTI-FUNCTION PROBE AIR DATA SYSTEMS,” (Attorney Docket No. B04.12-0053) which were filed on even date herewith.