Possible losses in airspeed during turning manoeuvres in gusty air

Abstract

It is normally assumed that the direction in which a body of turbulent air is traversed in flight is not significant in relation to the aircraft, and that this is also true in non-rectilinear flight. In this report it is demonstrated that, contrary to the results obtained using this general assumption, aircraft can experience losses or gains in airspeed when performing turns in gusty air, which persist when the turbulence ceases, and can be substantially larger than the gust speeds responsible for their generation. The results have important consequences to flight safety in low-level operations at relatively low speeds.