Compressor stall

The severity of the phenomenon ranges from a momentary power drop barely registered by the engine instruments to a complete loss of compression in case of a surge, requiring adjustments in the fuel flow to recover normal operation.

Propagation of the instability around the flow path annulus is driven by stall cell blockage causing an incidence spike on the adjacent blade.

While modern engines with advanced control units can avoid many causes of stall, jet aircraft pilots must continue to take this into account when dropping airspeed or increasing throttle.

[6] The Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet engine was affected by repeated compressor surges early in its 1940s development which proved difficult to eliminate from the design.

During the 1960s development of the Concorde Supersonic Transport (SST) a major incident occurred when a compressor surge caused a structural failure in the intake.

The hammershock which propagated forward from the compressor was of sufficient strength to cause an inlet ramp to become detached and expelled from the front of the intake.

[8] A compressor stall contributed to the 1994 death of Lt. Kara Hultgreen, the first female carrier-based United States Navy fighter pilot.

Her aircraft, a Grumman F-14 Tomcat, experienced a compressor stall and failure of its left engine, a Pratt & Whitney TF30 turbofan, due to disturbed airflow caused by Hultgreen's attempt to recover from an incorrect final approach position by executing a sideslip; compressor stalls from excessive yaw angle were a known deficiency of this type of engine.

The 1977 loss of Southern Airways Flight 242, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-9-31, while penetrating a thunderstorm cell over Georgia, was attributed to compressor stalls brought on by ingestion of large quantities of water and hail.

The stalls were so severe as to cause the destruction of the engines, leaving the flight crew with no choice but to make an emergency landing on a public road, killing 62 passengers and another eight people on the ground.

Climbing away with a high angle of attack, engines 1 and 2 also surged, causing the aircraft to crash some 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) past the end of the runway.