DBCherry, I haven't done any wing tunnel tests but I firmly believe from my experience that the wing in 3D is providing more lift than many assume. My primary 3D plane, a 35% Carden 540, only has 1.5:1 thrust to weight. I can harrier all day long at about 1/3 throttle, which on how I have my throttle curve setup, is nowhere close to 1:1. Probably closer to 0.5:1. I know this becasue I hover at about 3/4 throttle stick, which is 1:1. With smoke on (poor mans wind tunnel), I can see the airflow over the wing during a harrier. There is seperation, so I know the wing is stalled. It is possible that the AOA is not as high as one might first assume becasue the airflow over the wing, esp at the root, is influenced by the prop wash. But still, with only 0.5:1 thrust to weight and a AOA at the tips of say 30 degrees, most of the thrust is in the horizontal vecotor, which means less than have of the thrust is vertical. Assuming my throttle setting of 0.5:1, that means I still have 75% of the weight of the pane that must still be supported by something during a harrier. It has to be the wing.

Montauge is correct. In fact, with the airfoil and reynolds number I operate at, the transistion from normal to stalled flight is very smooth. I'm sure if my wing were tunnel tested, the knee of the curve where lift drops off at the stalled AOA must be very smooth, i.e. rounded and not abrupt. Some airfoils stall suddenly, thier lift drops very quickly past a certain AOA. Others then to be more gentle and the lift slowy diminishes past a certain AOA. Many airfoild can still generate 50% of the maximum lift at AOA's of 45 degrees! This is well past the stall point, which is typcially between 10 and 20 degrees, depending upon the airfoil. In general, thick airfoils with blunt leading edges tend to have very gentle stalls and generate lift well past the stall point. Thin airfoils with sharp leading edges tend to have abrupt stall point where lift is lost quickly past the stall point. Reynolds #'s (scale/velocity factor) also has a lot to do with how wings stall. It is my gut reaction that the larger 3D planes tend to stall more gently. This is why 3D in a 40 sized plane looks differnetly than 3D in a 40% plane.

Reguardless of the technical mumbo jumbo, 3D is a blast!