PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - High speed stall
View Single Post
Old 14th Nov 2008, 15:35
  #17 (permalink)  
boofhead
 
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Pacific
Posts: 731
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Pushing the discussion a little:
An airplane wing will stall when the angle of attack exceeds the critical angle.
If the g load is zero the stall speed is zero also.
Once below the stall speed, an airplane can still be "flown", in that the wings can be rolled, yaw applied and pitch adjusted. It was a fun thing to do in small jet trainers when manoeuvering below the normal stall speed, such as a low speed loop. At speeds close to the normal 1g stall speed, it was important to reduce the elevator force, using the natural stall buffet as a guide. But once below stall speed, full elevator could again be used to adjust the pitch and the wings kept level as the airplane continued ballistically over the top of the loop. Approaching the normal stall speed reduced elevator force was again required to avoid a stall.
My question from all this is what happens to the airflow when below stall speed? I figure the stream lines re-attach to the wing and there is no turbulent flow or break-away since there is no real low pressure or high pressure areas, all the pressure differentials are zero and the controls work only by Newtonian principles, like the rudder does on the initial takeoff roll.
Or to put it another way the wing is not stalled when speeds are below stall speed.

When a wing stalls it does not lose all lift. There is still some lift being developed and in fact the reason the nose drops is not because of the loss of lift. The airplane will start to fall since the total lift is less than the weight. The tail will then act as a drag on the upward flow of air over the airplane and, since it has a longer moment, force the nose down. The T tail can be in the disrupted, turbulent flow with the result that this natural nose-down force is not available and the stall will not self-recover. Neither will the elevator work, since it is also in the turbulent airflow.

In severe turbulence, hold attitude steady and all will be well. Over-control and when the airflow re-attaches another stall or perhaps structural failure will result.
boofhead is offline