One can notice a thin metre-long tube protruding from the nose of every aircraft, which is an air pressure measurement device and an essential component in the flight system. Efforts are on to develop photonic based alternatives to the tube, called pitot-static tube, and a city-based research institute has made considerable headway.

The tube creates a gap in the aircraft cone-based sensors and research efforts are on to find a replacement. City-based Gayatri Vidya Parishad Scientific and Industrial Research Centre (GVP-SIRC) has developed – taraNi – a photonic system based on back-scattering of light with measurement in nano-meter resolution.

It is a compact, lightweight, cheap, direct detection optical system that can directly measure wind speed and direction, density, pressure and temperature of a body of air, ahead of a moving aircraft. It was designed and developed, based on novel theoretical considerations, 600+ laboratory experiments at GVP-SIRC and field trials and new algorithms, director Rao Tatavarti said.

The prototype of taraNi – optical air data systems – was recently handed over to the National Aeronautical Laboratory after comprehensive evaluation trials and the NAL’s supersonic wind tunnel facility for wind speeds up to Mach 2.

Appreciating the results of the prototype Outstanding Scientist and Project Director of the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft of the Aeronautical Development Agency AK Ghosh wrote a letter of appreciation and expressed interest in continuing to collaborate with the Gayatri Vidya Parishad in the project.

Once commercialised, it could effectively replace the pitot-static tube system on all aircraft, he added.

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