Ground speed
(Redirected from
Groundspeed
) | This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2019) |
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
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
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.
See also
References
- ^ "Relative Velocity - Ground Reference". www.grc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2019-06-08.