The radio altimeter, also known as the radar altimeter, is a key tool on planes like the Boeing 747. Its main job is to find out how far the plane is from the ground. This is super important for pilots when they are taking off, landing, or flying low.
How It Works
This tool sends radio waves down to the ground, which then bounce back up to the plane. By timing how long this takes and knowing that light travels super fast, it can figure out how high the plane is. It also looks at the difference in signal frequency to get this right.
Why It’s Used
Radio altimeters are vital for a few reasons:
- They help pilots land and take off smoothly and safely by giving them exact height info.
- They help planes avoid hitting things like buildings or trees by telling pilots exactly how high they are.
- They assist pilots in flying safely to the runway when it's hard to see.
- They feed height data to autopilot systems, helping keep the flight steady and under control.
Specs and Facts
On a Boeing 747, a typical radio altimeter has these details:
- Works on frequencies between 4.2 GHz and 4.4 GHz
- It’s pretty accurate, within a foot (or about 0.3 meters)
- It can measure how high the plane is up to 2500 feet (or 760 meters)
- It updates up to 10 times a second
This tool is crucial for keeping folks safe in the air by giving pilots accurate height data. It’s getting better all the time, making flights safer and smoother.
Cool bit: If you ever see a video from inside the cockpit during landing and hear “100, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10,” that's the radio altimeter doing its job!
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