Ok im doing a report on airplanes from the small ones to the airliner jets and was wondering what exactly it means when a plane stalls. Also are there different type of stalls, and do pilots stall on purpose? And finally can you recover from a stall once it happens?
A stall is when the angle of attack, the angle at which the wings meet the onrushing air, is exceeded and the wings lose lift causing the plane to drop. The angle of attack at which this happens can vary depending upon the airspeed. Sufficient flow of air must continue over the wings to maintain lift. A stall can occur very basically speaking when one of two things may happen:
Too steep an angle of attack with insufficient flow of air over the wings causing a stall or
Insufficient airspeed at any angle, again not enough airflow over the wings.
A stall can be easily recovered from providing you have sufficient space between you and anything hard underneath you (like ground).
Pilots are trained to induce stalls thereby learning to recover from them.
Nov 172009