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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
Incidence and sideslip must be measured accurately in aircraft performance and stability tests. A convenient method is to install wind vanes on a nose boom. When only one sideslip and one incidence vane are fitted, mutual interference occurs, and the vanes do not indicate the true flow direction. This interference can be 0·5° at 0° incidence at subsonic and supersonic speeds. Thus a symmetric configuration of vanes is essential for accurate measurements of incidence and sideslip.
A cruciform arrangement of four wind vanes was fitted around the nose boom Pitot head of the Fairey Delta 2 supersonic research aircraft. The effect of the Pitot boom on the vane sensitivity was determined by a calibration of the aircraft vanes on a duplicate Pitot-static head in the R.A.E. Bedford 3 ft wind tunnel.
The effects of the fuselage and the wing upwash are only present at subsonic speeds and can be estimated.