Etymology The noun is derived from shock + stall (“loss of lift due to an airfoil’s critical angle of attack being exceeded”). The verb is derived from the noun.
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Aeronautics, Aerospace, Aviation, Business, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences A stall (“sudden loss of lift”) caused when the airflow over an aircraft's wings is disturbed by shock waves that occurs at a specific Mach number when the aircraft is accelerating to transonic speeds.
When I was down to 32,000 feet the altimeter was spinning merrily and the dive was very steep and I was pulling back on the stick in the usual way due to the change of trim at the shock stall.1944 April 27, Peter Caygill, quoting Tony Martindale, “Problems with Compressibility”, in Sound Barrier: The Rocky Road to MACH 1.0+, Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Books, published 2006, →ISBN, page 41:
His [Group Captain Hugh Joseph Wilson's] flights revealed at least two things: the effectiveness of turbojets used for the first time in international record breaking, and he came sufficiently close to the speed of sound to experience the effects of a partial shock stall. [...] It was noticed that changes in the air flow occur when the speed approaches the speed of sound—or, in other words, the speed at which waves propagate themselves in air—and that these changes could lead to a partial or complete shock stall.1947 August, Oliver Stewart, “Breaking the World’s Speed Record”, in Max Karant, editor, Flying, volume 41, number 2, Chicago, Ill.: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 60, column 1:
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A new realm in aerodynamics is entered, with sound and shock waves, Mach number and compressibility making their appearance. Life saving dope is disseminated [during ground training] on the warning signals and recognition of shock stalls and measures in recovering from them.1949 December, “Jetterbugs Made: Not Born to the Trade”, in Arthur L. Schoeni, editor, Naval Aviation News, number 332, Washington, D.C.: Chief of Naval Operations and Bureau of Aeronautics, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2, column 2:
Direct evidence is meagre, but suggests that local shockstalls of this type do not generally imply a severe increase of drag, but may occasionally set up buffeting effects.1956, A. S. Hartshorn, L. F. Nicholson, The Aerodynamics of the Cooling of Aircraft Reciprocating Engines (Reports and Memoranda; 2498), London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, →OCLC, page 37:
Compressibility effects are not found to change the dynamic stall characteristics in principle until the Mach number gets high enough to cause shock-stall rather than leading edge stall.1968, Lars E. Ericsson, J. Peter Reding, Unsteady Airfoil Stall and Stall Flutter (NASA Contractor Report; NASA/CR-111906), Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, →OCLC, page 34:
In the present work, the shock stall of an oscillating NACA64A010 airfoil for which detailed experimental data are available is studied.2001, Paola Cinnella, “Numerical Study of Transonic Shock/Boundary Layer Interactions on an Oscillating Airfoil Using a Third-order Scheme and Nonlinear Turbulence Models”, in Nobuyuki Satofuka, editor, Computational Fluid Dynamics 2000: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics, ICCFD, Kyoto, Japan, 10–14 July 2000, Berlin; Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, →DOI, →ISBN, part V (Compressible Flows), section 1 (Introduction), page 157:
shock stall
verb
Etymology The noun is derived from shock + stall (“loss of lift due to an airfoil’s critical angle of attack being exceeded”). The verb is derived from the noun.
The tailplane usually becomes more effective as a stabiliser at high Mach numbers because there are decreases of wing lift-curve slope and rate of change of downwash with mean lift coefficient. The latter effect is mainly due to the wing-root shock stalling at a lower Mach number than the rest of the wing.1947, S. Kirkby, A[braham] Robinson, Interference on a Wing due to a Body at Supersonic Speeds (Aeronautical Research Council Reports and Memoranda; no. 2500), London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, published 1952, →OCLC, page 23:
[A] loss of downwash due to the main wing shock stalling would result in an undesirable diving tendency.1947 January, The Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society, volume 51, part 1, London: Royal Aeronautical Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 130, column 1:
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The separation of the flow over wings precipitated by the compression shock that forms as speeds are increased into the supercritical Mach number range has imposed serious difficulties in the improvement of aircraft performance. These difficulties arise principally as a consequence of the rapid drag rise and the loss of lift that causes serious stability changes when the wing shock-stalls.1948 August, John Stack, W. F. Lindsey, “Summary”, in Characteristics of Low-aspect-ratio Wings at Supercritical Mach Numbers (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Technical Note; no. 1665), Washington, D.C.: National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, →OCLC, page 1:
In fact, in this case, after stalling in the normal manner, he would probably have fallen off in a dive and in doing so, increase his speed until he shock[-]stalled before effecting recovery.1949 June, R. G. Naugle, “Are Jet Fighters Overrated?”, in William B[ernard] Ziff [Sr.], editor, Flying, volume 44, number 6, Chicago, Ill.: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 68, column 1:
As a result of these tests it was shown that at the design incidence the conventional cascade shock stalled at some 75 per cent of the critical inlet velocity.1949 October, K. W. Todd, An Experimental Study of Three-dimensional High-speed Air Conditions in a Cascade of Axial-flow Compressor Blades (Aeronautical Research Council Reports and Memoranda; no. 2792), London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, published 1954, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Oct 2015, page 1:
When the wing shock stalls, the lift gradient a falls and, if no shock stalling occurs on the tail plane, the term #92;frac#123;a#95;1#92;bar#123;V1951, staff of the RAE [Royal Aircraft Establishment] High Speed Wind Tunnel, High Speed Wind Tunnel Tests on Models of Two Jet-propelled Fighters (Meteor and Vampire) (Aeronautical Research Council Reports and Memoranda; no. 2504), London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, →OCLC, page 35: