Andrew Sarangan wrote:

a. is dependent on its airspeed, and is independent of its weight
and
weight distribution, and

No, the stall AOA is independent of both airspeed and weight.

Too confusing

Getting back to basics, wings produce lift only when wind hits them,
i.e. when the aircraft starts moving. This keeps increasing until the
airspeed is adequate enough to produce a total lift that can levitate
the aircraft. Since the angle of the wings can't be varied, ignoring
flaps momentarily, I can't see how the stall AOA can be independent of
airspeed. What then is 'stall speed' of an airplane?

If stalling AOA is reached, adding engine power before the plane goes
into a stall will prevent the stall by increasing airspeed, right?

b. varies, for a given airspeed, with the air density (altitude)

No the stall AOA does not vary with density.

The stall AOA is determined by the shape of the wing. It is
independent of
weight and airspeed. However, the airspeed vs AOA relationship
depends on a
variety of factors, such as weight and density. This is why stall
speed is
somewhat a misleading quantity. AOA would be a better quantity.
Unfortunately there is no direct way to measure the AOA in most
aircraft,
so we use the airspeed as an indirect indication of the AOA.

Don't know much yet about this but I'm sure I saw the AOA indicated in
an A320 cockpit recently. I thought the pitch itself indicated AOA but
when the captain showed me the actual AOA reading, it varied by a wee
from the aircraft's pitch. He had to punch some buttons into the flight
computer to get the AOA reading.

Need to read up John Denker's book and the FAA material a lotttt more,
I guess :\

Ramapriya