Relative wind

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Relative wind" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

In aeronautics, the relative wind is the direction of movement of the atmosphere relative to an aircraft or an airfoil. It is opposite to the direction of movement of the aircraft or airfoil relative to the atmosphere. Close to any point on the surface of an aircraft or airfoil, the air is moving parallel to the surface; but at a great distance from the aircraft or airfoil, the movement of the air can be represented by a single vector. This vector is the relative wind or the free stream velocity vector.^[1]

The angle between the chord line of an airfoil and the relative wind defines the angle of attack. The relative wind is of great importance to pilots because exceeding the critical angle of attack will result in a stall, regardless of airspeed.