The ability to properly control the aircraft is a key concern when engineers are looking at wing designs. Because they want stalls to be easily recoverable, engineers can employ a number of devices to help this process. One of the most popular is a stall strip.
Your instructor will teach you not to use aileron during a stall recovery, but airplanes are designed to maximize aileron effectiveness through the stall process. It’s one way of making the airplane safer. For the ailerons to be effective, the airflow separation that occurs during a stall should begin at the root side of the wing and move out toward the tip.
Many wings do this naturally through design or by taking advantage of the angle to which they are bolted to the fuselage. But other airplanes need help accomplishing this, which is where stall strips come in.
Stall strips are small, triangular devices that are attached to the leading edge of a wing. By sticking out from the rest of the wing’s leading edge, they help to separate airflow at a lower angle of attack than the rest of the span. Thus, engineers can place them somewhere toward the inboard side of the wing to ensure the ailerons remain effective throughout the stall.
As a nice side benefit, stall strips also cause additional buffeting over the aircraft’s tail, which warns the pilot through the yoke or stick of an impending stall.
Stall strips can be found on almost every shape and size of aircraft, from small training airplanes to jet fighters and transport aircraft.
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