What exactly is a stall when talking about planes? I thought i knew..........?

Question

I thought i knew i what a stall was but after aking this question i became confused as to what it actually is so could someone explain.

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Answer 1

a stall is when the plane is no longer flying fast enough to create lift. if you have no lift you can try diving to generate speed, when you level out if you are fast enough you will have lift again. in a controled crash you generaly keep enough speed to create lift to enable you to glide down. in a full on crash you no longer have lift and you will come down like a brick. if you lift the nose the stall speed is slightly lower but only up to 20 mph slower depending on the aircraft been flown.

Answer 2

when the wing cant produce lift and the plane stop flying

Answer 3

The wings of an airplane must be tilted at least slightly upward with respect to the oncoming air in order to generate lift to hold the airplane up in the air.  This tilt is called an angle of attack.  In general, the greater the angle of attack (that is, the more the wings are tilted upward), the more lift the wings produce.  However, if the angle of attack exceeds a certain point, the air above the wing starts to churn and burble, destroying the aerodynamic effect that produces the lift. This is called a stall.  When a stall occurs, most of the lift from the wing disappears, and the plane descends (often rather suddenly).

To fix a stall, the pilot simply points the airplane downward a bit more, so that the angle of attack is smaller.  This immediately stops the stall, and the wing starts to produce lift again as before.  All pilots learn to do this in training and it's easy to do.

Airliners are never stalled in normal flight.  Pilots know what to do when a stall occurs, but since the movements of a stall can alarm passengers (even when there is no particular danger), pilots carefully avoid stalls in commercial flying.  Aerobatic pilots stall all the time as they fly around, and private pilots sometimes stall for practice ... or by accident, if they aren't paying attention.

Answer 4

A stall occurs when the air flow over the wing ceases to flow steadily and breaks away from the surface. This results in a sudden loss of lift. Causes may be a combination of low air speed and nose-up angle, or it can happen as the speed goes supersonic. An extreme example of a recoverable stall is the "Snake Bite" manoeuver preformed by the Russian MIG Foxbat aircraft. Vintage aircraft used to land effectively stalling onto the ground to make a 3 point landing. Modern aircraft with nose wheels land at a higher speed for safety reasons. In the recent loss of power incident at Heathrow the pilot was bringing the airliner down balancing the need to extend flight range against the possibility of stalling and crashing short.

Answer 5

In general a stall occurs when you do not have enough airflow over the wings to keep the aircraft airborne

Answer 6

A stall in aircraft has nothing to do with the engine.  

It is when the airflow over the wing become turbulent and separates, hence the buffetting, and stops producing lift.  It can occur at any attitude or airspeed, but always when the critical angle of attack is exceeded.

Answer 7

when you pitch up beyond a point you will not have enough airflow over the wing to keep th lift and thus you go into a stall

Answer 8

A stall is when a plane is going directly up and the plane's engine can't move the plane forward enough so then the plane falls down to the ground.  :-)

Answer 9

in a PLANE a stall is when air does not flow correctly over the wing and the plane literally falls backwards out of the sky unless recovered by the pilot which is very very hard to do. There is a warning well before this happens though!!

Answer 10

when ure fuel is low it stalls

Answer 11

nothing to do with the engine or speed. All about the angle of the wing to the relative wind. When the angle of the air flow is too close to being perpendicular to the bottom of the wing it will stall. the wing will produce the most lift if the wind is flowing directly at the leading edge.

If you are flying full speed and pull up at a steep angle so now the air flow can't flow over the top the wing will stall and the nose will drop.

Hope this helps.

Answer 12

A stall is a seperation of airflow over the wing, caused by turbulence caused by the angle of attack.  Airflow over a wing is usually a smooth, or laminar flow, that the air flowing over hte top of the wing will increase in speed , thus in turn create an area of lower pressure then the air on the bottom.. this area of low pressure is lift.

A stall is when the lift generated of the airplane can no longer support the weight of the aircraft, and can be caused by a few different factors.

The first is airspeed, or more importanley air flow, if there is not enough flow, the wing will not produce the lift neccessary, that is why airplanes have a stall speed, as this is the minimum speed neccessary to maintain lift.

Second is angle of attack, if the critical angle of attack is exceeded, it will cause the air to seperate over the wing, and spoil the lift, and this angle can be exceeded at any airspeed and any position relative to the horizion, and this is the bases for all aerobatics.

Third is load factor, as bank is increased, the forces acting on an aircraft are increased, and this force is represented in G's, as the "Weight" of the aircraft increases due to the increease of forces on the airplane, (G loads) the speed necessary to develop enough lift to maintain the "weight" of the aircraft has to increase, if not the aircraft will also stall.

Answer 13

I think it's the angle of attack at which drag is equal to lift.

Flat kites fly at stall.

Answer 14

A 'stall' in an airplane happens when the wing stops creating lift.  This could be due to several factors, including low speed, steep angle of attack, rapid change in wind direction, or any other action that stops the air from flowing over and under the wing at an even rate.  

One of the first maneuvers taught to new pilots is stall recovery, and in most airplanes, it's as simple as pushing the nose of the airplane down to gain air speed and start the wing flying again.  An unrecovered stall can turn into a spin, which is harder to recover from, and could create forces and stress beyond the structural limits of the aircraft, resulting in failure.

Answer 15

none of the above

its an unexpected reversal of the coriolis effect

Answer 16

A stall is when fuel cannot reach the engine- due to performing a barel-roll etc... where nomral gravity is interrupted. Newer planes have ways to counteract this, such as by putting in a special metal disc to the fuel pipe or by using valves.

Answer 17

A stall , is a loss of sufficient lift to let the airplane travel. This is called angle of attack or critical angle of attack , at which the wings will stall , and does not change depending on weight or other factors . (however higher weight will make the aircraft stall at a higher speed).The only way to recover from a stall is to decrease you attitude to level or descending flight while also applying power if needed to recover without excessive altitude loss.An aggravated stall will cause a spin.I hope this helps.

Answer 18

A stall is the condition where the wing is no longer producing lift.

Answer 19

Let say you're travelling straight down a road, you are not going up or down, just straight. You have a wing out the window, that wing is perfectly aligned with the wind, parallel to the road. That wing is generating lift, but not enough lift to get your car off the ground. Now lets say you point your wing up slightly. You are still travelling straight down the road, not up or down. The angle of your wing, pointing up, is known as your angle of attack. The wind meets the wing at an angle since the wing is pointed up relative to, say, the road (since you are going straight not up or down). At the same speed, the wing is now generating more lift than it was when it was parallel to the road, but it is still not enough lift to put your car in the air.

Now lets say you point your wing higher and higher. The wing will generate more and more lift (at the same speed). Eventually, around say 20 degrees pointed up, the wing will actually generate less lift as you point higher (this has to do with seperation and turbulence on the upper portion of the wing, and massive amounts of drag, but lets not go into too much detail about that).

Now I'm sure you already know that a faster moving wing can generate more lift (to a point). A slow moving wing will generate less lift. Now lets say a plane is approaching a stall. It will slow down, generating less lift. The pilot tries to hold his altitude, he pulls up. The increased angle of attack increases the wing's lift, compensating for the slower speed. The pilot keeps slowing, and pulling up. Eventually the plane reaches that 20 degrees up I mentioned earlier. At this point, pulling up no longer increases the amount of lift, so there is no way to maintain altitude if the plane keeps slowing. This is known as the critical angle of attack, and the plane is stalled.

There's a slight misconception here. When a plane is stalled, the wings are actually still producing lift - its just not enough lift to keep the plane flying level. I mean, if the wings stopped producing lift altogether, the plane would drop like a rock, which any pilot will tell you a stalled plane doesn't drop like a rock. By design, most planes will suffer a nose drop, and a skilled pilot can prevent a wing drop (can happen if say the right wing stalls before the left wing stalls).

Alright, about your loop... This is rather simplified... but lets say you're flying along, and just pulled the stick fully back really fast. The momentum of the plane will keep the plane going in its original direction. But since you cranked the stick full back, the plane will rotate and point upwards. This happens so quick, that the angle of attack (the difference between the airflow's direction and the where the wing is pointed) exceeds the critical angle of attack (stalling angle of attack) and the plane stalls. Going through a loop, its important to carry enough speed so you don't stall from going too slow, but also important to ease into the loop slow enough to not enter a high speed stall.

Sorry for the lengthy response, and I hope it all makes sense! Cheers.

Answer 20

A stall is when an airfoil reaches the critical angle of attack and the wings can no longer produce enough lift to counteract the weight of the plane (or gravity)

An aircraft can be stalled in three situations: low speed flying, high speed flying, and turning flight.

The airplane can be stalled in straight-and-level flight by flying too slowly and as the airspeed is decreased the angle of attack must be increased to retain the lift required for maintaining altitude. Eventually the angle of attack will reach the point where the wings can no longer create enough lift to support the aircraft and the aircraft will stall.

The aircraft can reach the critical angle of attack at any airspeed if the pilot pulls back on the control suddenly and centrifugal force will cause the airplane to stall due to it not being able to alter its flight path quickly enough.

Stalling IS NOT the engine quitting on you like in a car, the engine of the aircraft is still running (and the propeller still turning)

Recovery from a stall is simple, decrease the angle of attack so that the wings can produce more lift.

Stalls are mostly only dangerous on takeoff, go-around, and landing (when the aircraft is low to the ground at a slow airspeed), Stalls also bring the danger of a spin (where one wing of the aircraft is stalled more than the other and the aircraft spirals toward the ground) so try not to make a habit of stalling the plane :)

Answer 21

Hold on--first tell us what you think a stall is.

Put  your hand well outside the window of a car moving at 80mph through the air, and position your hand  so it flies.  Tilt your hand up enough and notice it stops flying and drops.  It stalled at the critical angle of attack.  You stalled it.  Just because your hand is moving fast through the air doesn't mean you can't stall.