One really cool feature we've been shipping on our ultralight aircraft is a retractable Pitot tube. The old fixed pitot tube was a royal pain, and tended to get bent everytime we shipped an airplane in our trailer.
Solution: a retractable pitot tube. Credit for this idea: Gene comes through again.
Here's photos as to how we do it:
First of all, this is what it looks like when it's extended. We've placed the pitot tube through the leading edge of the wing, which is also our front spar. Although this photo shows a carbon fiber spar, it works equally well with aluminum spars. Also note that the location of the pitot tube is very close to the wingtip, so there is very little stress on the spar at this point. (I have to have a very good reason to drill through a spar.)
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| Retractable Pitot Tube in Ultralight Aircraft |
