The flight parameter of an aircraft moving without acceleration can be estimated by exploiting the target‐generated noise received by a directional sensor consisting of three or four microphones. The Cramér–Rao lower bound is calculated to investigate the theoretical accuracy of estimates. Moreover, an algorithm is proposed which computes the maximum‐likelihood estimate. Extended simulations prove the algorithm to work reliably and fast, and the estimate to be nearly unbiased and efficient when averaged over a large region of flight parameters. Results obtained with real data are included.