Local how in the vicinity of an aircraft in gliding flight

For the determination. of the flight speed (V) over right arrow(infinity) o f an aircraft from inflight measurements of a local velocity (V) over right arrow, a detailed knowledge of the relation between local flow quantities V, alpha, beta, p, rho, T in the flowfield of the aircraft and the correspo nding free stream quantities V-infinity, alpha(infinity), beta(infinity), p (infinity), rho(infinity), T-infinity is necessary. For this purpose a high er order panel method has been applied to calculate this relation for the a ircraft Dornier Do 128-6. In a first step the clean configuration without p ropellers has been considered and in order to validate the calculations gli ding flights have been carried out. For the position at the tip of the nose boom of the aircraft considerable deviations between the free stream and th e local flow quantities have been found. In a typical low speed Right condi tion the local angle of attack is 0.56 degrees larger and the velocity is 2 .5% lower than the free stream quantities. The agreement between theory and flight tests is good, but further improvements are necessary. (C) 2000 Edi tions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.