SYNTHETIC AIR DATA - A COMPARATIVE PRACTICAL STUDY

Abstract

© (2022) by International Council of Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS) All rights reserved.Synthetic Air Data Systems are airspeed estimation algorithms. Such algorithms are built using measurements from sensors other than the classical Pitot tubes, from which airspeed estimates can be computed. This paper presents brief discussions over three direct estimation algorithms that use inertial sensors (IRS) and GPS as sources of information. It is also proposed and tested a recursive airspeed and thrust estimation (RATE) algorithm. Finally, a simple implementation using Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is tested and results are compared. The possibility to use angle-of-attack and/or temperature probes is also discussed. We also discuss practical aspects regarding airspeed, altitude and temperature estimations.

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