Flight attitude detection by measurements made on the aircraft skin using redundant strip pressure sensors

Air speed and flight attitude angles are fundamental parameters in the control of flying bodies. Conventional detection relies on instruments (such as Pitot tubes or vanes) having a one-to-one correspondence with the measured quantities and requiring specific placements. Here, a novel methodology is proposed where flight parameters are inferred from redundant pressure readings made by thin capacitive strip sensors directly placed on the aircraft skin. Redundancy help lower accuracy requirements on the individual sensors and enables fault detection. A strategy for efficiently combining sensor data is presented together with an error propagation analysis and experimental data.