Definition
A disruption of the smooth airflow through the compressor section of a turbine engine, in which one or more rows of compressor blades exceed their critical angle of attack and lose the ability to compress the incoming air. The result is a momentary or sustained breakdown of the pressure rise across the compressor, often accompanied by a loud bang, vibration, fluctuating engine instruments, and in severe cases flames from the inlet or exhaust.
Plain English
The blades inside a jet engine's compressor work like small wings. When the air hitting them comes in at the wrong angle, they stop pushing air through smoothly. The airflow breaks down, the engine stumbles, and you may hear a sharp bang and see the engine's readings jump around.
Context Anchor
Encountered in turbine-engine operations, especially during engine starts, rapid power changes, disturbed inlet airflow, or unusual flight conditions that upset airflow into the engine.
Derivation
The word stall is borrowed from wing aerodynamics, where a wing stalls when its angle of attack becomes too steep and lift collapses. Compressor blades are essentially small rotating wings, so the same word describes the same failure mode happening inside the engine.
Why Pilots Care
A compressor stall can cause sudden loss of thrust or engine damage, requiring immediate corrective action during flight.
Analogy
It is like a fan that is asked to pull in air faster than the air can enter cleanly. Instead of a smooth stream, the flow breaks up and the fan becomes noisy and inefficient.
Grounding Statement
Smooth airflow over compressor blades is required for continuous compression; when airflow separates, the compression process fails.
Intuition Check
Do not read stall here as a wing stall or as the engine simply stopping. In a compressor stall, the airflow inside the turbine engine’s compressor has broken down.
Example Sentence 1
When the pilot advanced the throttle too aggressively at high altitude, the engine produced a loud bang and the EGT spiked, indicating a compressor stall.
Example Sentence 2
Rapid throttle movement at high altitude can trigger a compressor stall in some turbine engines.