Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun aviation A
pressure measuring instrument used to measure fluid flow velocity, especially used to determine theairspeed of anaircraft .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Name for Italian-born French engineer Henri Pitot who invented the device in the early 1700s.
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Examples
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oroboros commented on the word pitot tube
Pronounced as if the final 't' is silent. A pressure measuring instrument used to measure fluid flow velocity, especially used to determine the airspeed of an aircraft. Invented by Henri Pitot, an Italian engineer. On aircraft the pitot tube(s) are heated to protect from icing up, which would effectively cause the airspeed instruments to be worthless--no fun, although certainly not automatically fatal: there are emergency procedures developed to deal with such problems.
Edit: Prolagus is right. Henri Pitot was a French engineer. My bad.
May 2, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word pitot tube
Can I say Henri Pitot sounds a bit too French to be Italian? :-)
Anyway, some people don't know you can embed pitot tube videos here in Wordie.
May 3, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word pitot tube
This term is much in the news these days as being the part that possibly failed, or was blocked, possibly causing the breakup/crash of Air France flight 447. Seen (most recently) here.
Edit: And here.
June 11, 2009