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Angle of Attack Sensor, Angle of Sideslip Sensor, Alpha Vane, Beta Vane
Airflow angles are determined from a pair of freerotating
balsa vanes mounted orthogonally to the instrument
head as shown in figure 3. The vanes are oriented to
measure angle of attack and flank angle, that is, the incidence
angles of airflow relative to the airplane in the vertical
and horizontal planes, respectively. Sideslip is
assumed to be equal to flank angle for small angles of
attack. The vane assembly is attached to a shaft which
rotates in a hollow strut and flange machined from a
solid piece of stainless steel for mounting. A bronze
sleeve bearing supports the outboard end of the shaft
with a synchro repeater attached to the inboard flange
end. A 16-bit synchro-to-digital converter was used to
obtain the data. As a result, airflow angles of 0.005? were
capable of being resolved. With equation (3c), this flow
angle translates into a sensitivity of 1 cm-s-1 for the vertical
velocity component.