Air data computer

This article is about air data computers in general. For the specific CADC used in the F-14, see F-14 CADC.

An air data computer (ADC) or central air data computer (CADC) computes critical real-time flight data. It is an essential avionics component found in modern aircraft. This computer, rather than individual instruments, can determine the calibrated airspeed, Mach number, altitude, and altitude trend data from pressure and temperature inputs from an aircraft's pitot-static system. In some very high-speed aircraft such as the Space Shuttle, equivalent airspeed is calculated instead of calibrated airspeed. Air data computers usually also have an input of total air temperature. This enables the computation of static air temperature and true airspeed.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.