How does an air data computer receive pitot static information?

How does an air data computer receive pitot static information?

• A. It uses pressure inputs from the pitot tube and static ports to compute airspeed, altitude, and other parameters
• B. It uses GPS data only
• C. It senses temperature to estimate airspeed
• D. It uses fuel flow data

Answer: (A)

An air data computer gets its information from the pitot-static system—the pitot tube provides stagnation (dynamic) pressure and the static ports provide ambient static pressure. The computer compares Pt (the pitot pressure) with Ps (the static pressure) to get dynamic pressure, which, together with air density (which changes with altitude and temperature), is used to calculate airspeed. The static pressure input also feeds the altitude and vertical speed calculations, since altitude is tied to ambient pressure. In short, these two pressure inputs are the primary measurements the ADC uses to derive airspeed, altitude, Mach, and related parameters; GPS or fuel-flow data aren’t part of the pitot-static-based calculations.

An air data computer gets its information from the pitot-static system—the pitot tube provides stagnation (dynamic) pressure and the static ports provide ambient static pressure. The computer compares Pt (the pitot pressure) with Ps (the static pressure) to get dynamic pressure, which, together with air density (which changes with altitude and temperature), is used to calculate airspeed. The static pressure input also feeds the altitude and vertical speed calculations, since altitude is tied to ambient pressure. In short, these two pressure inputs are the primary measurements the ADC uses to derive airspeed, altitude, Mach, and related parameters; GPS or fuel-flow data aren’t part of the pitot-static-based calculations.