PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Stalling in a turn
View Single Post
Old 12th Apr 2010, 13:17
  #43 (permalink)  
BasicService
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: UK
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Please explain this then guys.

Wings stall at an angle of attack, not a particular speed.

An aircraft in a steady balanced level turn is developing the same amount of lift from both wings, otherwise it would be rolling.

The outer wing is travelling further than the inner wing (in the same time, of course,) therefore it is going faster.

Since the amount of lift developed by a wing varies according to speed and angle of attack (and a constant) , if both wings are developing the same lift and one is going slower than the other the slower wing must have a greater angle of attack.

If speed is decreased the angles of attack must increase to maintain level flight The wing with the greater angle of attack, the slower one, must stall first.
In a level balanced turn both wings will have the same angle of attack, but the outer wing is moving slightly faster so will generate more lift. The outer wing aileron will need to be deflected upward slightly to counteract the rolling moment. The effective angle of attack of this wing tip will be reduced, but the AoA of the rest of the wing will be unaffected. In principle the inner wing tip will stall before the outer wing tip as you suggested, but in practice this will probably be impossible to observe because the wing will be designed so that the wing roots stall first.

Both this and the separate 'spiral staircase effect' (only occurs in a climb or descent) will be most noticeable at low TAS, where the radius of turn is smallest. In a level turn I do doubt whether it's a large enough effect to be noticeable at all.

The statement:
An aircraft in a steady balanced level turn is developing the same amount of lift from both wings
is not correct because it is the sum of the rolling moments around of the C of M that determines whether or not the aircraft is rolling, not the sum of the forces on each side.
BasicService is offline