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I've noticed that on combat aircraft the forward (nose-mounted) pitot tube is usually very long, on the order of half a meter to well over a meter on some aircraft. Why are they so long? Surely the body of the aircraft is not disturbing the air in front of the craft, neither during subsonic nor supersonic flight.

Example, from an AIDC F-CK-1:

enter image description here

Example, from a Mirage III:

enter image description here

Note that I couldn't find any good pictures of the Mirage in which the entire pitot tube actually fit in the photo!

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    $\begingroup$ TIL: Close up photos of F-16s make for quick instant StackOverflow karma. $\endgroup$ – dotancohen Jun 24 '14 at 14:53
  • $\begingroup$ Isn't the one on the front of the Mirage III a refueling probe? $\endgroup$ – Jon Story Nov 27 '14 at 14:46
  • $\begingroup$ @JonStory: No. $\endgroup$ – dotancohen Nov 27 '14 at 14:51
  • $\begingroup$ My bad :p I could have sworn I read something about nose refueling probes on a Mirage though $\endgroup$ – Jon Story Nov 27 '14 at 16:12
  • $\begingroup$ Some do not... USAF F-4C/D and Navy F-4 variants had pitot tube on the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer. $\endgroup$ – Charles Bretana Feb 12 '18 at 20:34
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The length is not needed for supersonic flight, but for subsonic flight at high angles of attack. Due to the high wing sweep, a high angle of attack capability just happens to coincide with supersonic configurations.

In subsonic flow the air ahead of the aircraft is influenced by the aircraft's pressure field, and at high angles of attack and high wing loadings this reaches out quite a bit. The pitot tube can only measure total pressure when it points into the flow direction. Ahead of the aircraft, the local flow angle increases the closer you are to the aircraft, and this increases measurement errors, because now the pitot tube sits at an oblique angle to the airflow. A longer pitot tube reaches farther out into still relatively undisturbed flow, so less compensation is needed to arrive at good values for total and static pressure. In early flight test, the pitot tube is much longer again, because the compensation factors are not yet established.

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    $\begingroup$ Thank you Peter! I had noticed as well that early development aircraft have longer pitot tubes. Thank you for taking the time to explain the issue and include so much detail. $\endgroup$ – dotancohen Jun 25 '14 at 5:31
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Actually, the aircraft is distorting the airflow in front of itself. As speed goes up, the shockwave builds and the aircraft starts to experience ever more sonic drag.
The long pitots will pierce through this thick boundary layer, into the smoother airflow in front, giving correct readings.

Physics Central has some Schlieren photos of the effect. When breaching the "sound barrier" the shockwave separates, which causes the sonic boom.But an area of distorted air remains.
The image below shows the effect on a space launcher, the escape tower sticking out through the separating shockwave.
Shockwave on a space launch vehicle

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    $\begingroup$ Thank you, I did not realize that the disturbance could stick so far out forward. That is the Ares rocket, no? $\endgroup$ – dotancohen Jun 24 '14 at 7:21
  • $\begingroup$ @dotancohen I don't know, just found the image looking for something that'd illustrate the idea $\endgroup$ – jwenting Jun 24 '14 at 9:18
  • $\begingroup$ @dotancohen A quick reverse image search says that it is indeed the Ares I-X rocket. $\endgroup$ – Nzall Jun 24 '14 at 11:15
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    $\begingroup$ @jwenting, your explanation seems fairly sound, but I know for a fact that calculating airspeed with a pitot tube from supersonic flow is a completely different thing than for sub sonic flow, see these lecture notes. So althouh the pitot tube may be protruding through the bulk of the shock wave, there is still a (smaller) shock wave in front of the pito itself. $\endgroup$ – Jonny Jun 24 '14 at 16:43
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    $\begingroup$ The picture shows a condensation collar, an effect typical for high subsonic speed. And on pointy aircraft noses airflow does not detach; detached shocks are typical for blunt configurations like the space shuttle. $\endgroup$ – Peter Kämpf May 3 '15 at 14:23

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