How can fly a helicopter

Think you'd like to fly a helicopter some day? We think you can do it! It will take quite a bit of training, though. Flying helicopters is a lot harder than flying airplanes. Did you realize you need both hands and both feet to fly a helicopter successfully? We hope today's Wonder of the Day took you to new heights! Be sure to grab a friend or family member to help you explore the following activities:. Hi, zack! We encourage you to read the Wonder very closely to learn more.

You can also keep researching at your library and online. Hey there Aidan, helicopters transport lots of cargo, so they need to be large enough to carry all of that! Thanks for sharing your comment! Higgins' Class! How cool that our helicopter Wonder connects to your lesson today! The forward movement the helicopter needs in order to take off comes from the rotation of the rotor blades!

We Wonder if you can do some more research of your own about helicopters' use of force and motion! Keep up the great work, Wonder Friends! We're glad you thought it was cool! Awesome, we're glad you liked today's Wonder Ryleigh! We can't take credit for the Wonder video today but we hope the group of students reached the 10 foot requirement!

They have been working so hard! We can't believe all the different types of helicopters that exist! We are glad that you liked today's Wonder-- we hope you have a terrific Tuesday! WOW, how cool, Daniel C! We are so impressed with your interest in helicopters-- way to go! We hope your remote control helicopter turns out great We are so excited that you enjoyed today's Wonder, Mrs.

Thomas's Tigers! How exciting that some of our Wonder Friends are going to be pilots when they grow up! We can't wait to find out what tomorrow's Wonder, Merrick! It's going to be a great one for sure! We think you did a great job of summarizing the hard work of the team! We learned what the word "perseverance" means today, too! We're so happy to Wonder with you-- we are smiling ear-to-ear!

Have a terrific Tuesday! We bet flying a helicopter with your arms and legs is tough and challenging, but very rewarding! We're glad today's Wonder made you smile, Berkleigh! Thanks for commenting! We can't take credit for today's Wonder video, Jordan, but we are very impressed by the hard work of the helicopter team!

We are so excited that today's Wonder was right up your alley! We can't take credit for the helicopter, but we're excited that you enjoyed today's Wonder! We aren't the team of engineering students, but we're glad to share some cool information about helicopters with you! We think they are fearless and determined! We were very impressed, too, Kayla R!

We hope they win the award! Thanks for sharing your comment, Wonder Friend! We sure do, too, Erick! The team working on the helicopter is incredible and we hope they are successful! We certainly agree with you, Katelyn! We are very impressed with the helicopter itself and the pilots who lift it off the ground! There is a lot of hard work involved! We are really glad this was a Wonder you enjoyed!

There were so many people working together to help the helicopter and the pilot get off the ground! It was so incredible to watch! We're happy that today's Wonder was right up your alley, Michael! Thanks for sharing your comment at Wonderopolis today!

We sure hope to see you soon, Wonder Friend! We were very impressed by today's Wonder, Emily! It was fun to watch the team work together to reach a goal-- especially when the helicopter and pilot reached 8 feet in the air! We know they are working on a safer, smoother landing and we hope they reach the 10 foot requirement, too! You never know, Bryleigh, you could be the next great helicopter pilot! We like that you checked out today's Wonder and learned something new!

Thanks for joining the fun today-- we'll see you soon! What a great word to describe the helicopter team, Julian! Nice work!

They are a group of people with a lot of perseverance! We hope they succeed in reaching the 10 foot requirement-- it would be a great accomplishment! We're so excited that today's Wonder was right up your alley, Jason! We can't take credit for creating the helicopter, but we are so proud of the hard work the students and the pilots have shown!

We hope they keep up the hard work to reach 10 feet with their human-powered helicopter! It's so much fun to Wonder with you, Jason! We agree, Jauquin! We bet it took a great deal of hard work, planning and determination to build that helicopter! It's pretty awesome to see it flying with the help of the pilots! We really liked today's Wonder, too, Azhir! We think the students and the pilots worked together like a team to reach their goal!

We learned so much from today's Wonder and we're glad to hear that you did too! We Wonder if you will create something like a human-powered helicopter in the future!? We certainly agree, Pablo! We bet it takes a great deal of determination to succeed- we hope those students and the pilots win!

These students and pilots have really tried their hardest, great point, Kamaria! We hope they are successful and win the prize for their awesome invention! We bet they are working hard to create a safe, soft landing for the helicopter and the pilot! Wasn't that an amazing Wonder video, Henry!? Collin and Henry must be very powerful to get the helicopter so high off the ground!

Great point, Carla! We hope that Collin is okay, but we bet he jumped right back in the helicopter after they repaired it! Very cool! You've got a great idea of how a helicopter works, Aniyah! Thanks for sharing your comment with us! We bet you'd LOVE the Wonder video today-- it shows a group of engineers who are working on a human-powered helicopter! Thanks for stopping by Wonderopolis today! Great Wonder, Mrs. Reasor's Class!

We bet you'll enjoy checking out this site that explains the original helicopter designed by Igor Sikorsky! We bet you'll enjoy learning about clay animation, but we're so excited that you're WONDERing about cartoon animation, too! WOW, thanks so much, Wonder Friend curiosity! We're so glad that today's Wonder made you feel like you were floating in thin air! We hope you'll join us for more fun very soon! Great question, Jack T!

We love applesauce here at Wonderopolis! We believe applesauce is somewhere in between, as it's made of a solid but pulsed, mashed and blended into a liquid substance. Check out all the new information you've learned today, Wondergirl! It makes us so happy to hear that you really enjoy your time at Wonderopolis! Virtual high five for you! Thanks for your super ideas for the next Wonder We are undergoing some spring clearing site maintenance and need to temporarily disable the commenting feature.

Thanks for your patience. Because hovering is the first thing taught, it can often seem more difficult than anything that comes after it. Another important maneuver to learn is an autorotation.

An autorotation is for if a helicopter engine stops running. By doing an autoration, a pilot can still safely return to the ground even with no external power. This can be a scary maneuver for even experienced pilots, but with enough practice, anyone can do it safely. Students learn an autoration first on the flight simulator and then, once comfortable with the process, on a real helicopter.

There are lots of difficult helicopter maneuvers, especially when starting out as a student and not fully knowing what the copter is capable of doing. Weather conditions Weather conditions also determine how difficult it is to fly a helicopter. Many helicopter jobs require pilots to work no matter the weather, like search and rescue, emergency services, and border patrol.

Unless you have experience flying in poor weather conditions, it will be more difficult to get these jobs. You never know what the weather will be like from day to day, which is great for flight training. But their change will continue only as long as the perturbation is working. At the end of the disturbance, the course angle and altitude will not change.

It can be said that the helicopter is stable with respect to the yaw rate and the vertical speed. This stability is explained by the fact that the main rotor at an increase of the airspeed in a direction opposite to the thrust reduces its thrust, and conversely, when this speed decreases—increases the thrust, thus creating a damping force in the direction of the axis of rotation.

Therefore, the tail rotor creates a large damping yaw moment on the helicopter, and the main rotor—a damping force for vertical helicopter movements. In forward flight, the efficiency of helicopter control and the derivatives of the damping moments and moments of stability with respect to the main rotor speed vary insignificantly. However, the moment derivative with respect to the angle of attack, which for the main rotor corresponds to the instability, begins to play an important role.

This instability can be compensated if the fuselage of the helicopter has a stabilizer, which improves the desired degree of stability in the angle of attack. But it is difficult to provide satisfactory longitudinal stability even with well-designed stabilizer.

In the forward flight, the roll movement is strongly connected with the yaw movement, just as it does on the airplane.

The own lateral motion of a single-rotor helicopter during a forward flight, as a rule, is periodically stable. In the low-speed modes, while the relationship between the roll and yaw movements is still small, and the roll motion, like the hovering, is unstable, the lateral motion of a single-rotor helicopter is unstable. Static stability of helicopters with two main rotors differs slightly from the stability of the helicopter with one main rotor.

The tandem main rotor helicopter has a significantly greater longitudinal static stability, and the coaxial main rotor helicopter has a greater lateral stability.

This is explained by the change of main rotors thrust at a disruption of the equilibrium. So, the helicopter, essentially, cannot maintain a steady flight regime. There are four basic controls used during flight. They are the collective pitch control, the throttle, the cyclic pitch control, and the antitorque pedals Figure Basic helicopter controls.

The collective pitch control changes the pitch angle of all main rotor blades. The collective is controlled by the left hand Figure As the pitch of the blades is increased, lift is created causing the helicopter to rise from the ground, hover or climb, as long as sufficient power is available.

The variation of the pitch angle of the blades changes the angle of attack on each blade. The change in the angle of attack causes a change in the drag, which reflects the speed or rpm of the main rotor. When the pitch angle increases, the angle of attack increases too, therefore the drag increases, and the rotor rpm decreases.

When the pitch angle decreases, the angle of attack and the drag decrease too, but the rotor rpm increases. To maintain a constant rotor rpm, which is specific to helicopters, a proportional alteration in power is required to compensate for the drag change. The purpose of the throttle is to regulate engine rpm if the system with a correlator or governor does not maintain the necessary rpm when the collective is raised or lowered, or if those devices are not installed, the throttle has to be moved manually with the twist grip to maintain desired rpm.

Twisting the throttle outboard increases rpm; twisting it inboard decreases rpm [ 2 ]. The correlator is a device that connects the collective lever and the engine throttle. When the collective lever raises, the power automatically increases and when lowers, the power decreases.

The correlator maintains rpm close to the desired value, but still requires an additional fine tuning of the throttle. The governor is a sensing device that recognizes the rotor and engine rpm and makes the necessary settings to keep rotor rpm constant. Under normal operation, once the rotor rpm is set, the governor keeps the rpm constant, and there is no need to make any throttle settings.

The governor is typical device used in turbine helicopters and is also used in some helicopters with piston engines [ 2 ]. The rotor control is performed by the cyclic pitch control, which tilts the main rotor disk by changing the pitch angle of the rotor blades. The tilting rotor disk produces a cyclic variation of the blade pitch angle.

When the main rotor disk is tilted, the horizontal component of thrust moves the helicopter in the tilt direction. Figure 20 shows the conventional main rotor collective and cyclic controls.

The controls use a swash plate. The collective control applies the same pitch angle to all blades and is the main tool for direct lift or thrust rotor control. Cyclic is more complicated and can be fully appreciated only when the rotor is rotating. The cyclic operates through a swash plate Figure 20 , which has non-rotating and rotating plates, the latter attached to the blades with pitch link rods, and the former to the control actuators [ 7 ].

Rotor control through a swash plate. Two anti-torque pedals are provided to counteract the torque effect of the main rotor. This is done by increasing or decreasing the thrust of the tail rotor Figures 19 and The torque varies with changes in main rotor power; therefore, the tail rotor thrust is necessary to change too.

The pedals are connected to the pitch change device on the tail rotor gearbox and enable the pitch angle of the tail rotor blades to increase or decrease [ 2 ].

Tail rotor pitch angle and thrust in relation to pedal positions during cruising flight. It is very important to determine what maximum weight the helicopter can carry before take-off, if the helicopter can safely hover at a given altitude and temperature, what distance is needed to climb above the obstacles, and what is the maximum climb rate [ 2 ]. The most important ones are: altitude, including pressure altitude and density altitude, helicopter gross weight, and the wind.

One of the most important factors in helicopter performance is the air density, which decreases with a gain in altitude. The effect of altitude is shown in Figure 22a. Increasing density altitude increases the power required in hover and lower airspeeds. At higher airspeeds, the results of lower air density result in a lower power requirements because of the reduction of parasitic drag.

A higher density altitude also affects the engine power available. The power available at a higher density altitude is less than that at a lower one.

As a result there is a decrease in the excess power at any airspeed [ 1 ]. Power required and power available at a different altitudes, and b different weights.

Increases in aircraft gross weight go hand in hand with requirements for higher angles of attack and more power. As shown in Figure 22b , by increasing the weight, the excess power becomes less, but it is particularly affected at lower airspeeds because of induced drag [ 1 ]. High gross weight also affects of the maximum height at which the helicopter can operate in ground effect for a given power available.

Under these conditions, the heavier the helicopter is, the lower the maximum hover altitude is [ 3 ]. Wind direction and velocity also affect hovering, takeoff, and climb performance. Translational lift occurs any time when there is relative airflow over the rotor disk.

This explains whether the relative airflow is caused by helicopter movement or by the wind. With the increase in the wind speed, the translational lift increases, therefore less power is required in hovering [ 2 ]. Besides the magnitude of wind velocity, its direction is essential.

Headwind is the most desirable because it gives the greatest increase in performance. Strong crosswind and tailwind require the more tail rotor thrust to maintain the directional control. The increased tail rotor thrust takes away a power from the engine, and therefore will have less power available to the main rotor, which produces the required lift.

Some helicopters have a critical wind azimuth limits and the manufacturer presents maximum safe relative wind chart. If the helicopter operates above these limits, it can cause a loss of tail rotor control [ 2 ].

It is supposed that the helicopter is in good operating condition and the engine is able to develop its rated power. It is assumed that the pilot performs normal operating procedures and he has average flying abilities [ 2 ]. With these assumptions, the manufacturer develops performance data for the helicopter taking into account the flight tests. But the helicopter is not tested under all conditions shown on the performance chart. Instead, an evaluation of the specific data is performed and the remaining data are obtained in mathematical way [ 2 ].

Generally, the charts present graphics related to hover power: in ground effect IGE hover ceiling vs. The exact names of these charts may vary by different helicopter manuals. These are not the only charts, but these charts are perhaps the most important charts in each manual—they help to understand the amount of power which the helicopter have to have under specific operating conditions altitude, gross weight, and temperature.

It has been shown that the performance characteristics can be derived by using simple models as the momentum and blade elements theories.

The impact of weight and altitude on the required power and the available power has been presented. Also, the case when the engine stops in flight and the main rotor performs autorotation is presented.

Some elementary analysis of the stability characteristics has been done. The impact of different helicopter parts on the stability has been considered.

Finally, it has been shown how the helicopter can be controlled. Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3. Help us write another book on this subject and reach those readers. Login to your personal dashboard for more detailed statistics on your publications.

Edited by Konstantin Volkov. We are IntechOpen, the world's leading publisher of Open Access books. Built by scientists, for scientists. Our readership spans scientists, professors, researchers, librarians, and students, as well as business professionals.

Downloaded: Abstract This chapter is dedicated to present the principles that constitute the fundamentals of helicopter flight physics, starting from the basics of the main rotor aerodynamics and of the component parts related to flight control.

Keywords helicopter aerodynamics induced velocity autorotation ground effect hover. Introduction The helicopter belongs to the flight machine category with the highest operational efficiency because it does not need special take-off and landing grounds with expensive utilities and logistics equipment.

This helicopter did not fly completely free due to its lack of stability; Igor Ivanovitch Sikorsky built a nonpiloted coaxial helicopter prototype; Boris Yuriev tried to build a helicopter with a single main rotor and tail rotor configuration. He proposed the concept of cyclic pitch for rotor control; the Danish Jen C.