Air France airliner with 228 aboard disappears over the Atlantic

[Caliga]

Berk, re: your question, I don't know exactly how to explain it but in a stall the aircraft is pitched to a different attitude than it is actually moving, meaning typically the aircraft is 'aiming' higher but actually moving lower.  It's not necessarily abnormal for there to be a differential between attitude and AOA... you've probably noticed on commercial flights that the plane usually descends while level since they throttle the engines back to lose altitude.  But there would always be a significant differential in a stall situation.

edit:  Also, Berk IIRC there isn't actually an AOA indicator on the instrument panel of the Airbus (though since then they might have changed that).

[Berkut]

Hmmm, I don't think that is it - the example I was thinking of was them noting that the angle of attack was 40 degrees, but the pitch attitude was 16 degrees.

Meanwhile, the aircraft itself was falling out of the sky. Maybe the pitch attitude is the angle that it is falling down? IE the nose is pointed 40 degrees in the air, and the plane is falling on a path that is 16 degrees below horizontal? Might be I am confused because I assumed that them both being positive numbers implied they were both aiming "up" relative to the horitzonal, but perhaps that isn't true, and pitch attitude is measure relative to the the horizontal in a downward manner?

Time to google!

[Maximus]

I figured AoA was the angle between pitch and velocity.

[Caliga]

IIRC AOA is the angle that the plane is actually moving at.  Pitch attitude is the angle that the plane is 'aiming' to move at.  The latter can easily be measured by elevator position and inputs.  The former, not so because it depends on multiple factors all working in conjunction with one another.

[DGuller]

I thought angle of attack was the wing angle, or at least it is in formula racing cars with upside down wings.  Then again, that doesn't really help understand how it works on planes, cars are always more or less level on the ground.

[The Brain]

I thought the angel of attack was fallen.

[Caliga]

Meanwhile, the aircraft itself was falling out of the sky. Maybe the pitch attitude is the angle that it is falling down? IE the nose is pointed 40 degrees in the air, and the plane is falling on a path that is 16 degrees below horizontal? Might be I am confused because I assumed that them both being positive numbers implied they were both aiming "up" relative to the horitzonal, but perhaps that isn't true, and pitch attitude is measure relative to the the horizontal in a downward manner?

Perhaps your source just said 40 degrees/16 degrees assuming it's implied which direction relative to the horizon the plane is moving by the situation?

[Caliga]

This all makes me want to flightsim some more.  Haven't done it in a while.

[The Brain]

This all makes me want to flightsim some more.  Haven't done it in a while.

[Barrister]

This all makes me want to flightsim some more.  Haven't done it in a while.

And how are your miniatures coming along, The Brain?

[DGuller]

This all makes me want to flightsim some more.  Haven't done it in a while.

And how are your miniatures coming along, The Brain?

[Admiral Yi]

Gaming forum sanctity! 

[The Brain]

This all makes me want to flightsim some more.  Haven't done it in a while.

And how are your miniatures coming along, The Brain?

Work on the Nagato is progressing at a snail's pace. So there.

[Berkut]

I thought angle of attack was the wing angle, or at least it is in formula racing cars with upside down wings.  Then again, that doesn't really help understand how it works on planes, cars are always more or less level on the ground.

The angle of attack is the difference between the angle of the wing and the airflow over that wing, while the pitch angle is the angle between the nose of the plane and the aritifial horizon.

So the AOA could vary greatly depending on how the aircraft is travelling through the air - some planes in fact could have a AOA of a few degrees even in level flight, because the wing is pitched itself.

So pitch attitude is probably more what we are thinking about when we imagine what angle the plane is actually flying at - which makes sense, since if it was at 40 degrees pitch from horizontal, that would be an *extreme* nose up, that stuff would be falling around the cabin and such.

[alfred russel]

Are we flying a small boat?

Subsequent evidence indicates no.