Results of a Feasibility Study for Determining the Yaw Angle of a Landing Aircraft

摘要

A study was conducted to determine a means of measuring the yaw angle (crab angle) of an aircraft landing in zero-zero visibility conditions. The results of flight tests using the technique judged most promising are described. This technique used the characteristics of the radar returns obtained when the beam aspects of the aircraft were illuminated with a high-range-resolution radar. The range-time profiles of the sides of the aircraft were processed to determine the delay time between maximum correlation of the two waveforms. This delay is shown to be directly related to the crab angle. While success was achieved using manual data processing, automatic data processing did not produce consistent results when the aircraft geometry was complex. It was concluded that the profiles did not match because of differences in the radar characteristics. A radar technique employing switched RF oscillators is recommended for further testing. (Author)