The two swash plates are moved up and down or tilted to the side by the pilot's cyclic and collective cockpit controls (not shown), which are explained below. That's how a chopper hovers and steers and it's described in more detail later in this article. Which spins on bearings around the static lower swash plate (6, red). A pitch link (a short rod) attached to each blade (4, orange) can tilt it to a steeper or shallower angle according to the position of the rotating upper swash plate (5, blue), It contains one or two engines, a transmission, and gearboxes, which power one or two main rotors and a much smaller tail rotor at the back.Īrtwork: A quick summary of the essential, mechanical parts of a helicopter.Įach rotor blade (1) is connected to the hub (2) and rotating mast by a feathering hinge (3), Made from strong but relatively lightweight composite materials. The main framework is called the fuselage and it's typically Key parts of a helicopterĪ typical helicopter has thousands of intricateĬomponents, but we only need to worry about a handful of the biggerīits. Vertically, hover or spin on the spot, or drift gently in any direction-and youĬan't do any of that in a conventional plane. With skillful piloting, a helicopter can take off or land Generating a massive downdraft of air that blows the helicopter The rotors are like thin wings, 'running' on the spot, On a huge Chinook, with the speed depending on the Speed (typically about 400–500 RPM on a small helicopter or about 225 RPM They have them built into their rotor blades, which spin around at high Lift, but instead of having their airfoils in a single fixed wing, Helicopters also make air move over airfoils to generate Notice the curved front edge of the rotor blade that cuts like an airfoil as it spins around. It takes four US marines to hold this rotor in place while it's being reattached after maintenance.

Photo: Mighty rotors: You can see just how big and heavy a helicopter's rotors are in this picture. Wings, it has to fly fast, and it needs a long runway for takeoff and The big problem with a plane is that lots of air has to raceĪcross its wings to generate enough lift that means it needs large Into the sky: a plane's engines speed it forward, while its wings fling Of the oncoming air, forcing it down behind them and powering them up Shoot forwards, their wings change the pressure and direction Lift with airfoils (wings that have a curved cross-section). The science of an airplane: it works by generating lift-an upward-pushing force that overcomes its weight and sweeps it into the air. The science of a helicopter is exactly the same as Advantages and disadvantages of helicopters.How Sikorsky designed the modern helicopter rotor.Picture by Joshua Adam Nuzzo courtesy of US Navy. Photo: The US Navy's largest helicopter: the CH53-E Sikorsky Super Stallion.Ī newer version, the CH-53K, is currently under development and expected to cost about $100 million per helicopter! How exactly do they work? Let's take a closer look! Why did it take so long? Because helicopters are incrediblyĬomplex machines-miracles of intricate engineering that take With spinning rotors for over 2000 years before Sikorskyįinally built the world's first practical helicopter in 1939. Historians, inventors had been trying to develop flying machines Plucking engineers off wind turbines, dashing the critically injured Sailors from the sea, hurling tubs of water onto forest fires, Wonderful for screaming us from one side of the planet to the other.īut when it comes to tricky rescue missions-plucking stranded Said was the closest thing to 'fulfillment of mankind's ancientĭreams of the flying horse and the magic carpet.' Jet planes are Travel! Igor Sikorsky (1889–1972), father of the modern chopper, had no doubt atĪll about the brilliance of this amazing, flying machine, which he No runway, no problem-have helicopter, will

Piston aircraft air combat maneuvers