Originally Posted by
thebat
As an uninformed observer of this discussion I pose this question to the FT's:
Airspeed = Groundspeed + Windspeed.
Or is this too much of a simplification?
And, if the above is true, obviously GPS can't record airspeed?
You got the sign wrong.
It's Ground speed= airspeed + wind speed. That has been so and always be, although Galileo Galilei, was the first to put it down. Strictly speaking, Lorentz Transformations relate velocities of an object in different inertial frames. But at low speeds, like that of an aircraft (even supersonic aircraft) and winds, Galilean transformation are sufficiently accurate.
You are absolutely correct that GPS, that records (measures) position of an object gives the ground speed, which when used with other data, can give us air speed. There is not dearth of uninformed people, who do not understand simple arithmetic.
