3 ms·
> A stall means that the air has separated from the wing and the wing is no longer flying. That's not quite right either. A wing doesn't stop flying when it st
by roelschroeven 4y ago
> A stall means that the air has separated from the wing and the wing is no longer flying.
That's not quite right either. A wing doesn't stop flying when it stalls, i.e. when the angle of attack exceeds the critical angle of attack. What does happen is that the coefficient of lift starts to decrease instead of increase what increasing angle of attack, and with sufficient angle of attack the coefficient of lift can become too low indeed.
A wing in stall can be flown, but it's tricky. Controls are inverted, natural stability of the plane doesn't really work anymore. It's not a situation you normally want to be in, but the plane does not suddenly fall from the sky.
- geocrasher 4y agoIt's true. A stalled wing still has aerodynamic properties that can be used to keep it from falling out of the sky immediately, but in the sense of the OP's comment about a delta being stalled, my definition as used to explain the difference between the two holds up. The article referenced also talks about control inversion, interestingly. So yes, a stalled wing can be "flown" but not in the same way that the original question was referencing.
- roelschroeven 4y agoWhere does the article mention control inversion? I don't see any mention of it. We're not talking about adverse yaw thing, we're talking about the coefficient-of-lift-decreases-with-increasing-angle-of-attack thing.
- geocrasher 4y agoHa again you are correct. I was going on memory. You see, I've got a memory like a... Uh... Whatchamacallit