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Old 01-17-2005 | 08:12 PM
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onewasp
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Default RE: Tip Stall--a misnomer?

Here is a quote from a more learned aero-engineer which gives pause for reconsideration----no authorship is posted as I do not have permission (or authority) to do so. He is speaking of forces in a coordinated turn---

"This also brings up the subject of tip stall. We're using a lot of small increases in angle of attack here to keep things in balance, and of course there's a limit on how much of that you can do before the airfoil says "ENOUGH!" and quits flying. Because of this, the stall speed increases as you increase the bank angle. It also means that, because it is flying slower in a turn, the inside wing tip is the most likely candidate for a stall in a turn, unless the designer has used airfoil selections, planform changes, etc., to make the center of the wing stall first. The lower speed at the inside wingtip actually exacts a double penalty, because in addition to the lower airspeed, you also get a lower Reynolds number, which increases the drag and reduces the maximum lift coefficient.

Virtually any model can be made to tip stall if the weight is low enough to allow a small enough turning radius. Because of this, contrary to what you might expect, airplanes with very low wing loadings are actually the most at risk for tip stall."

I would have received a zero had I attempted to answer the last paragraph---(had it been posed as a question). In fact I would have guessed that light wing loading was one 'cure' for 'Tip Stall' tendencies-----shows how little I grasp of the aerodynamics involved and I'm not too happy to acknowledge that incidentally. But "them are the facts"!