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pitot tube
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pressure measurement instrument used to measure fluid flow velocity
Wikidata facts
- Named after
- Henri Pitot
- Based on
- Bernoulli's principle
- Image
- Pitot tube wings.jpg
Show 4 more facts
- Commons category
- Pitot tubes
- discoverer or inventor
- Henri Pitot
- Commons gallery
- Pitot tube
- different from
- piezometer
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~7 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Aircraft use pitot tubes to measure airspeed. This example, from an Airbus A380, combines a pitot tube (right) with a static port and an angle-of-attack vane (left). Air-flow is right to left. Types of pitot tubes A pitot-static tube connected to a manometer Pitot tube on Kamov Ka-26 helicopter A Formula One car during testing with frames holding many pitot tubes Location of pitot tubes on a Boeing 777
A pitot tube (/ˈpiːtoʊ/ PEE-toh; also pitot probe) measures fluid flow velocity. It was invented by French engineer Henri Pitot during his work with aqueducts and published in 1732, and modified to its modern form in 1858 by Henry Darcy. It is widely used to determine the airspeed of aircraft; the water speed of boats; and the flow velocity of liquids, air, and gases in industry.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “pitot tube” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.