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Which part of the wing of a swept - wing aircraft stalls first?

  • Both stall together.
  • Root stalls first.
  • Tip stalls first.

Explanation from PART66Online

On a swept wing the spanwise boundary-layer drift toward the tips thickens the airflow outboard, so the tips reach separation first. A tip-first stall is undesirable because it can cause pitch-up and loss of aileron control, which is why swept wings use devices such as fences, vortex generators and wash-out to manage it.

L

lucdam56 asked · 12 Mar 2025

why tip? In swept-wing aircraft, the airflow partially moves toward the wingtip (the "spanwise flow" effect), causing a different lift distribution compared to straight wings. To avoid stability and controllability issues during a stall, the aerodynamic design is often optimized so that the wing root stalls before the tip.

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