Aircraft Electrical and Mechanical Systems Case Study

Aircraft Electrical and Mechanical Systems - Case Study Example This is why the name static to distinguish it from other concepts such as dynamic and absolute pressure. Atmospheric pressure reduces height and vice versa. The main explanation for this phenomenon is that Air has weight, and it is this weight exerted on a unit area of a surface that is known as pressure. The atmospheric pressure can be defined as the total force or weight by an air column at a point or area. Moving up means the air column is reducing resulting in less weight due to less air. Therefore, the pressure becomes less, which explains why atmospheric pressure reduces with height. Air presses on us more when at sea level that when on a mountaintop. This because at sea level the air pressure is approximately 14.7 lbs. /in2 and this value reduce as one goes up. Pressure varies significantly as one moves from the earth’s surface upwards to the top of the atmosphere. At higher altitudes, there is less air resulting in less weight and consequently less pressure. Therefore, mathematically the density and pressure of air reduce with elevation. Airspeed refers to the speed of an aircraft comparative to the air. Airspeed is measured ordinarily on board an aircraft using an airspeed indicator that is connected to a pitot-static system. The relationship between pressure and airspeed is that the function of calibrated airspeed is part of the compressible impact pressure. It is also important to note that, at sea level pressure, the rate of equivalent airspeed is equal to calibrated airspeed. 1. Description of types of basic pitot/static probes found on most 1st and 2nd generation aircraft 1st and 2nd generation aircrafts relied on non-compensating pitot tubes. These tubes were also associated with errors in static pressure measurements. Modern aerodynamic pitot tubes have an ogival shape (Clancy, 1975, p. 97). The shape is because of the formation of a quadratic polynomial profile.