Calibrated airspeed 2026-11-05
Calibrated airspeed is indicated airspeed corrected for instrument and installation errors. It remains a pressure-based speed convention; correcting the indicator does not by itself convert the reading into true airspeed. The FAA uses an airspeed-calibration chart to distinguish the indicated and corrected values.[ref]
Represent a specified correction chart by
The correction can depend on the operating condition. In an original invented chart, suppose indicated and correspond to calibrated and . Linear interpolation over this stipulated interval gives
so an indication of maps to . Neither a constant correction nor a universal percentage reproduces both chart endpoints. Extrapolation outside the measured interval is an additional assumption.
At low Mach number, corrected pressure difference is approximately , with the standard reference air mass density. The example's corrected pressure estimate is times the estimate obtained by treating the indication as calibrated. The corresponding correction to an inferred aerodynamic force at fixed coefficient and area is therefore not merely the speed correction.
Instrument testing checks the mapping from applied pressures to the reading. Installed-system work also addresses static-pressure position error: a port can sample a local pressure different from the intended free-stream static pressure. The correction must accompany its configuration and reference conditions. To obtain true airspeed, account for ambient conditions as well. At appreciable Mach number, compressibility also separates calibrated and equivalent airspeed; the low-speed square-root density conversion must not be silently extended to that regime.
True airspeed 2026-11-05
True airspeed is the magnitude of an aircraft's velocity relative to the surrounding air,
It determines the relative motion used in aerodynamic models, while groundspeed concerns horizontal travel over the ground. Indicated airspeed and calibrated airspeed describe stages in a pressure-instrument reduction, rather than another reference frame.[ref]
For an aligned low-Mach number pressure measurement in the regime of the Bernoulli equation,
An equivalent airspeed uses the same dynamic pressure with a standard reference mass density, . Hence
Only where the low-speed pressure relations justify may calibrated speed be substituted in this last expression without a separate compressibility correction.
For an original low-speed example, use , and ambient . The corrected difference is approximately , giving . At a fixed pressure difference, halving ambient mass density increases the inferred true airspeed by , rather than doubling it. This follows from the square-root dependence, not a wind correction.
Obtaining the ambient mass density can require independent static pressure and thermodynamic temperature measurements, with a suitable equation of state. For fixed , a small relative density error changes the inferred speed by approximately . Wind information is needed separately to predict the ground track. A single ground-travel speed cannot supply all of these quantities. The pressure inference also depends on clear passages and valid stopping-flow assumptions.[ref]