Angle of attack is defined as... and what should it not do in flight?

Angle of attack is defined as... and what should it not do in flight?

• A. The angle between the wing chord line and the oncoming relative wind; it directly affects lift; should not be increased beyond the critical angle to avoid stall.
• B. The angle of bank of the airplane.
• C. The pitch angle of the nose relative to the horizon.
• D. The angle between fuselage and relative wind.

Answer: (B)

Angle of attack is the angle between the wing’s chord line and the oncoming relative wind. This angle determines how much lift the wing can produce: lift rises with increasing angle of attack up to the point of the critical angle, beyond which the airflow over the wing separates and a stall occurs, causing a sudden loss of lift. So in flight you should not let the angle of attack exceed the critical angle of attack. The other descriptions refer to different aircraft orientations: the angle of bank is the roll angle of the airplane, the pitch angle is the nose’s attitude relative to the horizon, and the angle between the fuselage and the relative wind is not how angle of attack is defined, since AoA uses the wing’s chord line as the reference.

Angle of attack is the angle between the wing’s chord line and the oncoming relative wind. This angle determines how much lift the wing can produce: lift rises with increasing angle of attack up to the point of the critical angle, beyond which the airflow over the wing separates and a stall occurs, causing a sudden loss of lift. So in flight you should not let the angle of attack exceed the critical angle of attack. The other descriptions refer to different aircraft orientations: the angle of bank is the roll angle of the airplane, the pitch angle is the nose’s attitude relative to the horizon, and the angle between the fuselage and the relative wind is not how angle of attack is defined, since AoA uses the wing’s chord line as the reference.