Mach number
Mach number, a useful quantity in aerodynamics, is the ratio of air speed to the local speed of sound. At altitude, for reasons explained, Mach number is a function of temperature. Aircraft flight instruments, however, operate using pressure differential to compute Mach number, not temperature. The assumption is that a particular pressure represents a particular altitude and, therefore, a standard temperature. Aircraft flight instruments need to operate this way because the stagnation pressure sensed by a Pitot tube is dependent on altitude as well as speed.Flight instruments are the instruments in the cockpit of an aircraft that provide the pilot with information about the flight situation of that aircraft, such as altitude, speed and direction. The flight instruments are of particular use in conditions of poor visibility, such as in clouds, when such information is not available from visual reference outside the aircraft. The term is sometimes used loosely as a synonym for cockpit instruments as a whole, in which context it can include engine instruments, navigational and communication equipment.A pitot (pron.: /?pi?to?/) tube is a pressure measurement instrument used to measure fluid flow velocity. The pitot tube was invented by the French engineer Henri Pitot in the early 18th century[1] and was modified to its modern form in the mid-19th century by French scientist Henry Darcy.[2] It is widely used to determine the airspeed of an aircraft and to measure air and gas velocities in industrial applications. The pitot tube is used to measure the local velocity at a given point in the flow stream and not the average velocity in the pipe or conduit
[3] Operation Pitot tubes on aircraft commonly have heating elements called pitot heat to prevent the tube from becoming clogged with ice. The failure of these systems can have catastrophic consequences, as in the case of Austral Lineas Aereas Flight 2553, Birgenair Flight 301 (investigators suspected that some kind of insect could have created a nest inside the pitot tube: the prime suspect is a species called the black and yellow mud dauber wasp), Northwest Airlines Flight 6231, Aeroperu Flight 603 (blocked static port), and of one X-31.[5] The French air safety authority BEA said that pitot tube icing was a contributing factor in the crash of Air France Flight 447 from high altitude into the Atlantic Ocean.[6] [edit]Industry applications Pitot tube from a F/A-18 In industry, the velocities being measured are often those flowing in ducts and tubing where measurements by an anemometer would be difficult to obtain. In these kinds of measurements, the most practical instrument to use is the pitot tube. The pitot tube can be inserted through a small hole in the duct with the pitot connected to a U-tube water gauge or some other differential pressure gauge (alnor) for determining the velocity inside the ducted wind tunnel. One use of this technique is to determine the volume of air that is being delivered to a conditioned space. The fluid flow rate in a duct can then be estimated from: Volume flow rate (cubic feet per minute) = duct area (square feet) ? velocity (feet per minute) Volume flow rate (cubic meters per second) = duct area (square meters) ? velocity (meters per second) In aviation, airspeed is typically measured in knots.