Statistical Methods for Determination of Aircraft Static Pressure Defect

Aircraft rely on a static pressure sensor to determine airspeed and altitude from measured pressure outside the aircraft. Because of the dynamic and turbulent airstream adjacent to the fuselage during flight, the static pressure sensor mounting location on the aircraft must be carefully chosen to minimize errors in pressure caused by motion; despite careful analysis, there remains some inherent defect due to turbulence. Using data from the SEAR-MAR educational deployment of the University of Wyoming King Air to the mid-Atlantic region, this study aims to develop a model and use statistical methods to quantitatively determine the uncertainty in the measurement of static pressure on the King Air due to random variability at the static pressure sensor. The aircraft will perform various independent and combined maneuvers, which invoke variations in flight parameters (e.g. airspeed, heading, pitch, etc.) over a reasonable span of the operational range to generate a dataset of static pressure readings, from which a relative uncertainty can be determined. This method may then be used in calibrating aircraft static pressure sensors, providing a simpler alternative to more expensive and labor-intensive techniques such as trailing cone and tower fly-bys.