Stall (flight)
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- For other uses, see stall.
In aerodynamics, a stall is a sudden reduction in the lift forces generated by an airfoil. This most usually occurs when the critical angle of attack for the airfoil is exceeded.
Because stalls are most commonly discussed in connection with aviation, this article discusses stalls mainly as they relate to aircraft. In layman's terms, a stall in an aircraft is an event that causes the aircraft to drop suddenly (see the overview below).
Note that an aerodynamic stall does not mean that an aircraft's engines have stopped or that the aircraft has stopped moving.
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[edit] Layman's overview
Aircraft are supported in the air by an aerodynamic force called lift, which is generated by the wings of the aircraft as air is forced past the wings by the forward movement of the aircraft. The wings of the aircraft generate lift when they are pointed slightly upward with respect to the direction of the air flowing towards them. If the pilot tilts the aircraft upward, the wings form a larger angle with the airflow, and lift increases. This angle is called the angle of attack, or AOA. The heavier the aircraft and/or the slower the aircraft is flown the greater must be the angle of attack to generate the lift force necessary to maintain altitude.
Although raising the nose of the aircraft increases angle of attack and thus increases lift, this cannot be done without limit. Up to a certain angle of attack, called the critical angle of attack, pointing the wings upward continues to produce more lift. However, beyond the critical angle of attack, the airflow behind the wing separates from the wing and becomes turbulent, and the aerodynamic effects that produce the lifting force largely disappear, and the wing stalls—that is, it ceases to provide enough lift to support the aircraft. At the same time, the turbulence greatly increases drag, which slows the aircraft down as it moves through the air, and this also reduces lift. As a result of these changes, the aircraft begins to sink rapidly towards the ground.
Recovering from a stall is simple. Since the stall is caused by an excessive angle of attack, simply pointing the nose of the aircraft downward will stop the stall, by reducing the angle between the wings and the flow of air. Some aircraft have a natural tendency to pitch downward (sometimes dramatically) when the wings stall; others must be directed downward by the pilot. As soon as the angle of attack drops below the critical angle, the aerodynamic stall of the wings will cease i.e. the wings will produce lift and far less drag. However, the aircraft may still be flying too slowly to generate enough lift to prevent the aircraft from continuing to descend: Recovery from the stall includes regaining this necessary speed.
Typically a stall is caused by the pilot attempting to fly the aircraft too slowly, or to pull up too quickly from a dive, or to turn too steeply. Each of these causes the nose to be lifted until the wing's critical angle of attack is exceeded. Increasing engine power counteracts the increased drag caused by the stall and also increases air speed, and this helps in recovery from a stall. The critical action is recovering from a stall is, however, reduction in the angle of attack i.e. lowering the nose.
Altitude (height above the ground) is lost by the aircraft during the stall itself but considerably more height can be lost during the recovery i.e. while regaining enough speed to generate enough lift to maintain altitude. If the aircraft is already at a high altitude this is not a problem. If the aircraft is very close to the ground, however, a stall may cause the aircraft to lose so much altitude that it hits the ground before recovery from the stall is possible. For this reason, pilots are especially careful to avoid stalls during take-off and landing procedures, when the aircraft is often very close to the ground.
Stalls in aircraft usually do not occur without warning. Sensors in the aircraft alert the pilot when the aircraft is about to stall, and experienced pilots can often sense an approaching stall in the changing behavior of the aircraft. Since the conditions that produce stalls are very well understood, pilots can easily avoid stalls, and many pilots never experience stalls outside of their pilot training. Standard pilot training includes training in the proper ways to avoid, recognize, and recover from stalls.
Stalls can be alarming for non-pilots, because the aircraft may drop very suddenly and pitch forward in a frightening way. However, recovery is simple, and stalls are not a cause for concern unless they occur in close proximity to the ground. Commercial airliners never experience stalls in normal flight, and commercial pilots are especially careful to avoid stalls in order to avoid making passengers uncomfortable.
A few types of aircraft with a T-shaped tail or rear-mounted engines can enter a deep stall or superstall. This is a type of stall that produces turbulence behind the wings that can interfere with the operation of engines or the tail of the aircraft. Recovery from a deep stall can be impossible, resulting in a crash. Some aircraft with such characteristics are fitted with special control devices to prevent the aircraft from ever approaching a position that can cause a deep stall. An example of such a device is a stick pusher, which forces the nose of the aircraft down whenever it approaches a stall, regardless of any actions taken by the pilot.
- The remainder of this article describes stalls in more technical terms.
[edit] Formal definition
A stall is a condition in aerodynamics and aviation where as the angle between the wing's chord line and the relative wind (the angle of attack) increases beyond a certain point the lift, rather than increasing, reduces. The angle at which this occurs is called the critical angle of attack. This angle is typically 12 to 15 degrees for many subsonic airfoils. The critical angle of attack is the angle of attack on the lift coefficient versus angle-of-attack curve at which the maximum lift coefficient occurs, and it usually represents the boundary between the wing's linear and nonlinear airflow regimes. Flow separation begins to occur at this point, decreasing lift, increasing drag, and changing the wing's centre of lift. A fixed-wing aircraft during a stall may experience buffeting, a change in attitude (nose up or nose down). Most aircraft are designed to have a gradual stall with characteristics that will warn the pilot and give the pilot time to react. For example an aircraft that does not buffet before the stall may have a stick shaker installed to simulate the feel of a buffet by vibrating the stick fore and aft. The critical angle of attack in steady straight and level flight can only be attained at low airspeed. Attempts to increase the angle of attack at higher airspeeds can cause a high speed stall or may merely cause the aircraft to climb.
Because air no longer flows smoothly over the wings during a stall aileron control of roll becomes less effective, whereas the tendency for the ailerons to generate adverse yaw increases. Any yaw will increase the lift from the advancing wing and may cause the aircraft to increase rather than reduce the roll.
Depending on the aircraft's design, a stall can expose extremely adverse properties of balance and control. The ease with which a particular craft will recover from a stall depends on the dynamics of the aircraft itself and the skill of the pilot. If the stall persists a high rate of descent will occur and a spin may also develop.
[edit] Graph
The graph shows that the greatest amount of lift is produced just before the critical angle of attack is reached (which in early 20th century aviation was called the "burble point"). This angle is 17.5 degrees in this case but changes from airfoil to airfoil. The graph shows that as the angle of attack is exceeded beyond the critical angle, the lift produced by the wing decreases significantly. The airfoil is now stalled.
Note that this graph shows the stall angle, yet in practice most pilots discuss stalling in terms of airspeed. This is because in general terms one can relate the angle of attack to airspeed - a lower speed requires a greater angle of attack to produce the necessary lift and vice versa. Thus as speed falls, AoA can increase, until the critical angle is reached. The airspeed at which this angle is reached is the (1g, unaccelerated) stalling speed of the aircraft in that particular configuration. Deploying flaps/slats decreases the stall speed to allow the aircraft to land at a lower speed.
The stall speed will be higher if the aircraft is experiencing more than one-g of longitudinal acceleration. The stall speeds found in many aircraft manuals only apply to unaccelerated flight.
[edit] Aerodynamic description of a stall
[edit] Stalling an aeroplane
If attempting the stall for flight training purposes, be sure to carry out correct checks before hand such as the HASEL check. This ensures that the engine is in the right condition and the area around the aircraft is safe and acceptable.
An aeroplane can be made to stall in any pitch attitude or bank angle or at any airspeed but is commonly practised by reducing the speed to the unaccelerated stall speed, at a safe altitude. Unaccelerated (1g) stall speed varies on different aeroplanes and is represented by colour codes on the air speed indicator. As the plane flies at this speed the angle of attack must be increased to prevent any loss of altitude or gain in airspeed (which corresponds to the stall angle described above). The pilot will notice the flight controls have become less responsive and may also notice some buffeting, an aerodynamic vibration caused by the airflow starting to detach from the wing surface.
In most light aircraft, as the stall is reached the aircraft will start to descend (because the wing is no longer producing enough lift to support the aeroplane's weight) and the nose will pitch down. Recovery from this stalled state usually involves the pilot decreasing the angle of attack and increasing the air speed, until smooth air flow over the wing is resumed. Normal flight can be resumed once recovery from the stall is complete. The manoeuvre is normally quite safe and if correctly handled leads to only a small loss in altitude. It is taught and practised in order to help pilots recognize, avoid, and recover from stalling the aeroplane.
The most common stall-spin scenarios occur on takeoff (departure stall) and during landing (base to final turn) because of insufficient airspeed during these manoeuvres. Stalls also occur during a go-around manoeuvre if the pilot does not properly respond to the out-of-trim situation resulting from the transition from low power setting to high power setting at low speed. Stall speed is increased when the upper wing surfaces are contaminated with ice or frost creating a rougher surface.
A special form of asymmetric stall in which the aircraft also rotates about its yaw axis is called a spin. A spin will occur if an aircraft is stalled and there is an asymmetric yawing moment applied to it. This yawing moment can be aerodynamic (sideslip angle, rudder, adverse yaw from the ailerons), thrust related (p-factor, one engine inoperative on a multi-engine non-centreline thrust aircraft), or from any number of possible sources of yaw.
Since most aircraft have an engine, some confusion exists between an aerodynamic versus engine stall. Many people seem to believe that an aircraft will drop out of the sky as soon as the engine stops in flight. In reality, the pilot can simply lower its nose to generate enough airspeed to maintain lift over the wings and so prevent a stall. The aircraft will then descend at a steady airspeed. The pilot then has time to find a suitable landing area or to restart the engine.
Put differently, all powered aircraft (even the biggest ones) become gliders when they lose all thrust. There have been cases of airliners running out of fuel at high altitude that landed successfully at airports a hundred kilometres away. However the distance which an aircraft can glide is directly related to the airspeed, but most of all the density altitude which the aircraft is at. The Gimli Glider is a celebrated example.
Stalls can occur at higher speeds if the wings already have a high angle of attack. Attempting to increase the angle of attack at 1g by moving the control column back simply causes the aircraft to rise. However the aircraft may experience higher g, for example when it is pulling out of a dive. In this case, the wings will already be generating more lift to provide the necessary upwards acceleration and so there will be higher angle of attack. Increasing the g still further, by pulling back on the control column, can cause the stalling angle to be exceeded even at a high speed. High speed stalls produce the same buffeting characteristics as 1g stalls and can also initiate a spin if there is also any yawing.
[edit] Symptoms of an approaching stall
One symptom of an approaching stall is slow and sloppy controls. As the speed of the aeroplane decreases approaching the stall, there is less air moving over the wing and therefore less will be deflected by the control surfaces (ailerons, rudder and elevator) at this slower speed. Some buffeting may also be felt from the turbulent flow above the wings as the stall is reached. However during a turn this buffeting will not be felt and immediate action must be taken to recover from the stall. The stall warning will sound, if fitted, in most aircraft 5 to 10 knots above the stall speed.
[edit] Stalling characteristics
Different aircraft types have different stalling characteristics. A benign stall is one where the nose drops gently and the wings remain level throughout. Slightly more demanding is a stall where one wing stalls slightly before the other, causing that wing to drop sharply, with the possibility of entering a spin. A dangerous stall is one where the nose rises, pushing the wing deeper into the stalled state and potentially leading to an unrecoverable deep stall. This can occur in some T-tailed aircraft where the turbulent airflow from the stalled wing can blanket the control surfaces at the tail.
[edit] “Stall speed”
Stalls depend more on angle of attack rather than airspeed. However, since, for every weight of every aircraft, there is an airspeed at which the wing's angle of attack will exceed the critical angle of attack, airspeed in a given configuration is often used as an indirect indicator of approaching stall conditions.
There are multiple V speeds which are used to indicate when a stall will occur:
- VS: the stalling speed or the minimum steady flight speed at which the airplane is controllable. Usually synonymous with VS1.
- VS0: the stalling speed or the minimum steady flight speed in the landing configuration.
- VS1: the stalling speed or the minimum steady flight speed obtained in a specific configuration (usually a "clean" configuration of flaps, landing gear and other sources of drag).
- VSR: reference stall speed.
- VSR0: reference stall speed in the landing configuration.
- VSR1: reference stall speed in a specific configuration.
- VSW: speed at which onset of natural or artificial stall warning occurs.
On an airspeed indicator, VS0 is indicated by the bottom of the white arc, while VS is indicated by the bottom of the green arc.
[edit] Deep stall
A deep stall (also called a superstall) is a dangerous type of stall that affects certain aircraft designs, notably those with a T-tail configuration. In these designs, the turbulent wake of a stalled main wing "blanks" the horizontal stabilizer, rendering the elevators ineffective and preventing the aircraft from recovering from the stall.
Although effects similar to deep stall had long been known to occur on many aircraft designs, the name first came into widespread use after a deep stall caused the prototype BAC 1-11 to crash, killing its crew. This led to changes to the aircraft, including the installation of a stick shaker (see below) in order to clearly warn the pilot of the problem before it occurred. Stick shakers are now a part of all commercial airliners. Nevertheless, the problem continues to periodically haunt new designs; in the 1980s a prototype of the latest model of the Canadair Challenger business jet entered deep stall during testing, killing one of the test pilots who was unable to jump from the plane in time. Also, paragliders are sometimes known to enter a deep stall condition.
Deep stall is possible with some sailplanes, as their most common designs are T-tail configurations. The IS-29 glider is one of the gliders that are vulnerable to deep stalls when the CG and the overall weight are between certain limits.
In the early 1980s, a Schweizer SGS 1-36 sailplane was modified for NASA's controlled deep-stall flight program.[1]
[edit] Stall warning and safety devices
Aeroplanes can be equipped with a variety of devices to prevent or postpone a stall or to make it less (or in some cases more) severe, or to make recovery easier.
- An aerodynamic twist can be introduced to the wing with the leading edge near the wing tip twisted downward. This is called washout and causes the wing root to stall before the wing tip. This makes the stall gentle and progressive. Since the stall is delayed at the wing tips, where the ailerons are, roll control is maintained when the stall begins.
- A stall strip is a small sharp-edged device which, when attached to the leading edge of a wing, encourages the stall to start there in preference to any other location on the wing. If attached close to the wing root it makes the stall gentle and progressive; if attached near the wing tip it encourages the aircraft to drop a wing when stalling.
- Vortex generators, tiny strips of metal or plastic placed on top of the wing near the leading edge that protrude past the boundary layer into the free stream. As the name implies they energize the boundary layer by mixing free stream airflow with boundary layer flow thereby creating vortices, this increases the inertia of the boundary layer. By increasing the inertia of the boundary layer airflow separation and the resulting stall may be delayed.
- An anti-stall strake is a wing extension at the root leading edge which generates a vortex on the wing upper surface to postpone the stall.
- A stick-pusher is a mechanical device which prevents the pilot from stalling an aeroplane by pushing the controls forwards as the stall is approached.
- A stick shaker is a similar device which shakes the pilot's controls to warn of the onset of stall.
- A stall warning is an electronic or mechanical device which sounds an audible warning as the stall speed is approached. The majority of aircraft contain some form of this device that warns the pilot of an impending stall. The simplest such device is a 'stall warning horn', which consists of either a pressure sensor or a movable metal tab that actuates a switch, and produces an audible warning in response.
- An angle of attack limiter or an "alpha" limiter is a flight computer that automatically prevents pilot input from causing the plane to rise over the stall angle. Some alpha limiters can be disabled by the pilot.
If a forward canard is used for pitch control rather than an aft tail, the canard is designed to stall at a slightly greater angle of attack than the wing (i.e. the canard stalls first). When the canard stalls, the nose drops, lowering the angle of attack thus preventing the wing from stalling. Thus the wing virtually never stalls.
If an aft tail is used, the wing is designed to stall before the tail. In this case, the wing can be flown at higher lift coefficient (closer to stall) to produce more overall lift.
Many aircraft have an angle of attack indicator among the pilot's instruments which lets the pilot know precisely how close to the stall point the aircraft is.
[edit] Spoilers
In most circumstances, a stall is an undesirable event. Spoilers, however, are devices that are intentionally deployed to create a carefully controlled stall over part of an aircraft's wing, in order to reduce the lift it generates, and allow it to descend without gaining speed. Spoilers are also deployed asymmetrically (i.e. on one wing only) to enhance roll control.
