Horizontal speed of an aircraft relative to the ground
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Ground speed is the horizontal speed of an aircraft relative to the Earth’s surface.[1] It is vital for accurate navigation that the pilot has an estimate of the ground speed that will be achieved during each leg of a flight.
An aircraft diving vertically would have a ground speed of zero. Information displayed to passengers through the entertainment system of airline aircraft usually gives the aircraft ground speed rather than airspeed.
Ground speed can be determined by the vector sum of the aircraft's true airspeed and the current wind speed and direction; a headwind subtracts from the ground speed, while a tailwind adds to it. Winds at other angles to the heading will have components of either headwind or tailwind as well as a crosswind component.
An airspeed indicator indicates the aircraft's speed relative to the air mass. The air mass may be moving over the ground due to wind, and therefore some additional means to provide position over the ground is required. This might be through navigation using landmarks, radio aided position location, inertial navigation system, or GPS. When more advanced technology is unavailable, an E6B flight computer may be used to calculate ground speed. Ground speed radar can measure it directly.
Ground speed is quite different from airspeed. When an aircraft is airborne the ground speed does not determine when the aircraft will stall, and it doesn't influence the aircraft performance such as rate of climb.
Groundspeed is the horizontal speed of an aircraft relative to the Earth’s surface. It is vital for accurate navigation that the pilot has an estimate...
expressed by the aircraft's indicated airspeed (and not by, for example, the groundspeed), so that pilots may use them directly, without having to apply correction...
Groundspeed radar is a non-mechanical way of measuring the speed of a vehicle. The Speed sensor fires a radar beam towards the ground and measures the...
airliners also include groundspeed (GS) and Machmeter. Groundspeed shows the actual speed that the aircraft uses compared to the ground. This is usually connected...
fly the airplane to it. The bombsight directly measured the aircraft's groundspeed and direction, which older types could only estimate with lengthy manual...
held by the common swift. List of birds by flight heights Sustained groundspeed for approximately nine hours with no rest on high tailwinds during an...
the world's fastest steam train Aircraft speed records are based on true airspeed, rather than groundspeed. HTV-2 (artist rendering), the fastest uncrewed...
exceeding swim speeds of 36 km/h (22 mph). The larger reported figures below are therefore highly questionable: Sustained groundspeed for approximately...
target, filtering on the radial speed is a very effective way to eliminate the ground clutter that always has a null speed. Low-flying military plane with...
An air speed record is the highest airspeed attained by an aircraft of a particular class. The rules for all official aviation records are defined by...
other items. In the air, the flight computer can be used to calculate groundspeed, estimated fuel burn and updated estimated time of arrival. The back...
convention. The ground vector represents the motion of the aircraft over the ground. It is described by ground track and groundspeed. The ground vector is...
the groundspeed of the machine to be varied while maintaining a constant engine and threshing speed. It is desirable to keep the threshing speed constant...
same airfoil moving through tranquil air, or with a tailwind, at equal groundspeed. As a result, aviators and air traffic controllers commonly choose to...
and true airspeed (TAS). If there is no wind it is also the same as groundspeed (GS). Under any other conditions, CAS may differ from the aircraft's...
airspeed is the speed of an aircraft relative to the air it is flying through (which itself is usually moving relative to the ground due to wind). It...
unit increase in height above ground level. In metric units, it is often measured in units of meters per second of speed, per kilometer of height (m/s/km)...
The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted c, is a universal physical constant that is exactly equal to 299,792,458 metres per second (approximately...
Behind His Famed GroundSpeed Check". The Aviation Geek Club. 4 December 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2020. "Major Brian Shul's SR-71 "speed check" story is...
armour for the sake of speed and only required a 180 hp (130 kW) engine for the 19 ton body, giving it a projected groundspeed of 16 km/h (9.9 mph). The...
other items. In the air, the flight computer can be used to calculate groundspeed, estimated fuel burn and updated estimated time of arrival. The back...
shallow layer of rain-cooled air spreading out near ground level from the parent thunderstorm, both speed and directional wind shear can result at the leading...
vane in front. Water traverse speed varies greatly between vehicles and is much less than groundspeed. The maximum swim speed of the M113 is 3.6 mph (5.8 km/h)...
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