Processing flight test data

The calibration of measurements of the four critical parameters that define an aircraft´s air data state, the state of an aircraft relative to the air mass through which it is flying, is discussed. The parameters are altitude, airspeed, angle-of-attack, and angle-of-sideslip. The measurements are taken by external probes, usually located on the aircraft´s forebody, and are affected by the aircraft contours, which tend to disturb the local airflow across the probes. It is shown that using an expert system to calibrate the data improves the process.<>