Helicopter rotor

Helicopter rotors

A rotor is the rotating part of a helicopter which generates lift, either vertically in the case of a main rotor, or horizontally in the case of a tail rotor.

History and development

Before the development of powered helicopters in the mid 20th century, autogyro pioneer Juan de la Cierva researched and developed many of the basics of the rotor. Cierva is credited with successful development of multi-bladed, fully articulated rotor systems. This type of system is widely used today in many multi-bladed helicopters.

Helicopter Rotor Media

• 

  A Bell AH-1 SuperCobra with a semirigid rotor system with a 2-bladed main rotor

• 

  NOTAR helicopter with a rotorless tail

• Merlin Mk2 helicopter flying. This three-engined helicopter has a single large main rotor and smaller tail rotor

• 

  Tail Rotor of a Sea Lynx, the smaller tail rotor counter-acts the torque of the spinning main rotor in many designs, although there are other solutions to this, such as having two counter-rotating main rotors

• 

  Looking up at CH-53G, which has 6-blades on its main rotor

• 

  Bell 407 main rotor head

• 

  Diagram of fully articulated main rotor head

• 

  A Bell 205 with a semirigid rotor and stabilizer bar

• 

  A semirigid rotor head with a flybar

• 

  Antitorque: torque effect on a helicopter

• Video of K-Max helicopter in flight, showing the meshing main rotors in motion

• Airspeeder MK3 In South Australia Test Flight (2021)

Other websites

• Rotor Analysis - Blade Element Momentum Theory
• Helicopter Rotorhead Close-up Image Gallery