Flush static ports placement on a commercial transport aircraft: a design practice from aerodynamic perspectives

Flush-mounted static ports are widely used to sense ambient static pressure on modern subsonic commercial transport aircrafts. From aerodynamic perspectives, controlling the local position error mainly due to placement of static ports is the first step to obtain satisfied static pressure accuracy in practical design. It is found that position error at given location is mainly affected by flight Mach number and angle of attack. A comprehensive CFD study is consequently carried out to investigate the static pressure dependencies on Mach number and angle of attack for a typical commercial transport aircraft. A region insensitivity to angle of attack is discovered on the fuselage by some statistic post-processing of the CFD results. This insensitivity region is then identified as a baseline for placing the flush static ports. The thereout preliminary positions are verified by wind tunnel tests. Numerical simulation and associated statistical post-processing on the static pressure fields actually provide a novel and quantitative approach for determining static ports locations.