Students often ask me about an aircraft’s stall speed.
Yes — an airplane can stall at any speed, depending on its angle of attack (AoA), not its airspeed.
Here’s how that works:
A stall occurs when the angle of attack (the angle between the wing’s chord line and the relative airflow) exceeds the critical angle—usually around 15° to 18° for most wings. When this happens, smooth airflow over the wing breaks down, lift drops sharply, and the wing stalls.
Now, because angle of attack—not airspeed—is the key factor, the airplane can reach that critical angle under many different speed conditions:
At low speed, such as during approach or climb, the pilot must raise the nose to maintain lift. This higher pitch increases the angle of attack, and if pushed too far, it stalls even at a low airspeed. At high speed, a stall can still occur—like during a steep turn or pull-up—if the pilot pulls too many Gs, rapidly increasing the wing’s effective angle of attack even though the airspeed is high. This is called an accelerated stall.
So, while stall speed changes with weight, load factor, and configuration, the stall itself always happens at the same critical angle of attack.
CP Jois
