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Old 06-12-2006 | 06:29 PM
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da Rock
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From: Near Pfafftown NC
Default RE: Airfoil section stall behaviour

Actually, none of them stop lifting when they stall.

If you look at any plot of lift and drag at angle of attack for any airfoil, you'll see that. As the AOA increases, we see the lift increase until at some AOA the lift starts to decrease. The line that shows drag does much the same except at that same AOA, it doesn't start to decrease. It keeps rising and usually does so at an increased rate.

What we see our airplane do, we often think of as a sudden loss of lift, but what it really is, is simply a loss of ENOUGH lift. That's coupled with steadily increasing drag that keeps increasing. And our airplane, which we were slowing and slowing, suddenly doesn't have enough lift to keep that speed, and it drops it's nose or a wing.