Aviation Stack Exchange
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Questions tagged [stall]

A stall is an aerodynamic condition wherein the angle of attack of a wing increases beyond the "critical angle of attack", causing the wing to cease generating lift.

A stall is an aerodynamic condition wherein the angle of attack of a wing increases beyond the "critical angle of attack", causing the wing to cease generating lift. It's important to note that stalls can happen at any airspeed and in any attitude; the only cause of a stall is exceeding the critical angle of attack.

As the angle of attack of a wing increases it generates more lift, up until the critical angle of attack. Increasing the angle of attack beyond the critical angle results in a turbulent, detached airflow along the top of the wing.

Stall diagram

At this point the wing is no longer generating lift, and the angle of attack must be reduced to allow the wing to produce lift again.

For more information about aerodynamic stalls and recovery see the Wikipedia article.

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What is the immediate cause of stall?

The direct cause of stall is unclear to me. I heard about exceeding maximum angle of attack (around 40°) ; I heard about reaching the stall speed in the current configuration (flaps, etc). I heard about load factor which can lead to a stall. Are…
Fox
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Why does indicated stall speed change?

Aviation confusing me... I’ve read that stall speed doesn’t change (IAS) no matter what altitude you’re flying - of course under specific conditions ISA, 1G level flight, no wind, gross weight etc. then why I keep witnessing for example in the…
Mike no smith
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Why are aerodynamic models without stall used in research papers?

Some papers that I'm reading in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics give aerodynamic models in which the lift force appears to not take stall into account -- unless I am misinterpreting the math model, but I don't think I am. Is it reasonable to use a…
user59266
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What would cause an aircraft (j3 piper cub) to slide backwards when going into a stall?

Fifty years ago, I took lessons at an uncontrolled airport and this happened to me, fortunately my instructor took over and as cool as a cucumber corrected the situation. His detailing of what he was doing fell on deaf ears.
John Marmara
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of a low stall angle?

One advantage I can think of is when we increase the wing's angle of incidence to decrease fuselage drag and increase takeoff lift, but would higher stalling angles always be better in terms of flight safety? And how low could a stalling angle be in…
Luan Arita
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What is stall speed exactly?

I used to simply think It was the speed where any attempt to pitch up to maintain an equilibrium between lift and weight would result in flow separation, But Wikipedia says; But I noticed in a Sim I play, The stall buzzer plays whenever the airspeed…
James Davis
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Why would one wing stall before the other?

Reading about the Douglas C-133, I see this: The second issue discovered was stall characteristics gave very little warning to the crew. The left wing was found to stall before the right wing. The fix was simple, a small strip of metal was…
Adam
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Is this the correct functioning of a reed type sensor in a stall warning system?

I understand that this type of system works based on suction. According to what I read, at angles close to the critical angle of attack, the pressure near the leading edge is very low, this generates a greater pressure differential causing an…
Alex Gallegos
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Attack angle in high speed

I found the above animation; the moving slow air (or wing) will hardly to lead to an aerodynamic stall, but the usual case is a plane in the air running much faster than the animation, so does the wing with such attack angle and high speed make an…
opoxs
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Impact of centre of gravity position on stall recovery

Can somebody explain what is the impact of CoG position on stall recovery. I heard that stall speed is higher with forward CoG comapared to aft CoG, but does it have influence on stall recovery? Is it more or less difficult with some CoG position?
Konrad
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How can critical angle of attack of the wing of an an aircraft exceed even when the pitch angle is zero?

Normally one would expect that if the pitch angle is zero, that is the aircraft is level on the artificial horizon, how would the wing present itself to the relative wind at such high angle that it exceeds the critical AOA.?
user2927392
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If a stall is at the same angle of attack what is the stall speed?

So I of course know that the wing can stall at any angle of attack, but what then is the stall speed? Is that the speed at which the wing will always stall and it may stall at a higher speed?
Captain Picard
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Safety measures to prevent pilots causing passenger planes to stall

Why is it possible for pilots of commercial airliners to execute manoeuvres virtually guaranteed to cause a stall?
Tom
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Stall speed requirement

I calculated my stall speed at 22m/s. For this stall speed, would it be a better idea to increase it to use in my calculations later on or leave it as it is? I thought increase it a little to be on the safe side so that my other calculations are…
Air guy
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