Aircraft angle of attack and air speed detection by redundant strip pressure sensors

Air speed and angle of attack are fundamental parameters in the control of flying bodies. Conventional detection techniques use sensors that may protrude outside the aircraft, be too bulky for installation on small UAVs, or be excessively intrusive. We propose a novel readout methodology where flight parameters are inferred from redundant pressure readings made by capacitive strip sensors directly applied on the airfoil skin. Redundancy helps lower the accuracy requirements on the individual sensors. A strategy for combining sensor data is presented with an error propagation analysis. The latter enables foreseeing the precision by which the flight parameters can be detected. The methodology has been validated by fluid dynamic simulation and a sample case is illustrated.