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Aircraft speed: Difference between revisions
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==Expressing speed== | ==Expressing speed== | ||
=== Ground Speed === | === Ground Speed === | ||
*'''Ground''' speed (GS) is the horizontal speed in which the aircraft moves relative to a fixed point on the ground. | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_speed|'''Ground''' speed (GS)] is the horizontal speed in which the aircraft moves relative to a fixed point on the ground. | ||
One needs to know | One needs to know the GS in order to see how long a flight from A to B actually takes. Nowadays GS can be directly measured using a GPS system, and some aircraft equipped with such a system have a GS indicator. Without a GPS, GS has to be calculated from airspeed and the local wind pattern or estimated by measuring the time between passing two points on the ground with a known distance, but in Flightgear you can always cheat and get it from the property browser under <tt>velocities/groundspeed-kt</tt>. | ||
GS is the velocity in the horizontal direction of the aircraft. I.e. in a steep dive, the aircraft can move very fast, but because the motion is chiefly vertical, the ground-speed can be very small at the same time. This is where the GS differs from the ground-speed of a car. | GS is the velocity in the horizontal direction of the aircraft. I.e. in a steep dive, the aircraft can move very fast, but because the motion is chiefly vertical, the ground-speed can be very small at the same time. This is where the GS differs from the ground-speed of a car. | ||