Ground speed

Ground speed is the speed of an aircraft relative to the ground. It is the sum of the aircraft's true airspeed and the current wind and weather conditions; a headwind subtracts from the ground speed, while a tailwind adds to it. Winds at other angles to the heading will have components of either headwind or tailwind as well as a crosswind component.

An airspeed indicator can only indicate the aircraft's movement within an air mass. The air mass as a whole may be moving over the ground due to wind, and therefore some additional means to provide position over the ground is required. This might be through navigation using landmarks, radio aided position location, inertial navigation system, or GPS. When more advanced technology is unavailable, an E6B flight computer is often used to calculate groundspeed.

Ground speed is quite different from airspeed and, when an aircraft is aloft, has no affect on actual aircraft performance such as stall speeds or other V speeds.

See also

• True airspeed
• Indicated airspeed
• Inertial navigation system
• GPS