DETERMINING ALTITUDE OF AN AIRCRAFT DURING FLIGHT BASED ON VORTEX SHEDDING

• Main Authors: NASLUND, Brian Brent, MATHEIS, Brian Daniel, DAUP, Michael Robert
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 23.08.2023
• Subjects: GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; INDICATING PRESENCE, ABSENCE, OR DIRECTION, OF MOVEMENT; MEASURING; MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; MEASURING LINEAR OR ANGULAR SPEED, ACCELERATION, DECELERATION,OR SHOCK; NAVIGATION; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY; PHYSICS; SURVEYING; TESTING

Apparatus and associated methods relate to determining altitude of an aircraft during flight based on properties of vortex shedding. A vortex-shedding projection (14) is projected into the airstream adjacent to the exterior surface of the aircraft so as to cause vortex-shedding turbulence (36) of the airstream. One or more downstream sound-pressure detectors (16A - 16G), which are attached to the exterior surface of the aircraft downstream from the vortex-shedding projection, detect(s) a vortex-shedding frequency f of the vortex-shedding turbulence caused by the vortex-shedding projection. A processor (18) determines the altitude of the aircraft based, at least in part, on the vortex-shedding frequency f of the vortex-shedding turbulence as detected by the one or more downstream sound-pressure detectors.