Airspeed


In aerospace engineering, airspeed is the speed of an aircraft relative to the air. Among the common conventions for qualifying airspeed are 'indicated airspeed' (IAS), 'calibrated airspeed' (CAS), 'true airspeed' (TAS), and 'ground speed' (GS). IAS is read directly from the airspeed indicator on an aircraft, which is calibrated to reflect standard atmospheric adiabatic compressible flow at sea level, uncorrected for airspeed system errors. CAS is IAS corrected for instrument and position error. When IAS is corrected for altitude and non-standard temperature, the speed becomes TAS. GS is the actual speed of the aircraft over the ground, which can be different from TAS due to wind conditions. Understanding and managing airspeed is crucial for the safe and efficient operation of aircraft. It is used in both flight planning and in-flight management to determine fuel consumption rates, time of arrival estimates, and in the case of commercial airlines, cost of operation.


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