The angle of attack at which a wing stalls regardless of airspeed, flight attitude, or weight is known as the:

• A. Maneuvering angle
• B. Terminal angle
• C. Critical angle of attack
• D. Stall boundary angle

Answer: (C)

The main idea is that stall occurs when the wing reaches a specific angle of attack, called the critical angle of attack. This is the angle at which the airflow can no longer stay attached to the wing surface, causing rapid flow separation and a sharp drop in lift. That critical angle is a property of the airfoil in its current configuration, so it doesn’t depend on how fast you’re flying, the airplane’s weight, or its attitude. Those factors change the airspeed you need to reach that angle, or the flight path required to reach it, but the stall itself happens whenever the wing reaches that particular angle of attack.

Think of it this way: lift rises with angle of attack up to a point, then as you push beyond that point the lift falls off because the flow detaches from the wing. The value at which that happens is the critical angle of attack, which is the correct term for this concept.

Other terms aren’t the standard name for this phenomenon. Maneuvering angle and terminal angle aren’t used to describe the stall trigger, and stall boundary angle isn’t the recognized term for identifying the precise AoA that causes stall.