Talk:Angle of attack

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why is it called angle of attack?

is this a refernce to artillery? it doesnt make sense to trace it to fighter planes Lollipop (talk) 17:15, 26 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

John D. Anderson defines the term in his textbook "Introduction to Flight" as

The angle between the relative wind and the chord line is the angle of attack α of the airfoil.

Sounds like an obvious enough usage of plain English to me, and nothing to do with artillery. I haven't researched the etymology, but maybe this article will answer your question. Mr. Swordfish (talk) 17:41, 26 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]