Acceleration inside an aircraft in parabolic flight

Abstract

This paper aims to present and analyse the acceleration data inside an aircraft during a parabolic flight. The data used were obtained during the flight from the automatic recordings of the aircraft and from a portable data logger with a built-in 3-axis accelerometer connected to a graphic calculator. There is good agreement between the accelerations obtained by the two methods. Based on the altitude data collected during each parabolic manoeuvre performed by the aircraft, it was possible to estimate the gravity of Mars and the Moon, as well as the values of the acceleration of gravity during the moments of microgravity. The analysis presented can also help to improve the understanding of the concepts of inertial forces and the equivalence between gravity and acceleration.