Helicopter
Sponsored Links:A helicopter is an aircraft which is lifted and propelled by one or more horizontal rotors consisting of two or more rotor blades. Helicopters are classified as rotorcraft to distinguish them from fixed-wing aircraft because the helicopter derives its source of lift from the rotor blades rotating around a mast. In fact, the word ‘helicopter’ originates from the Greek words elikoeioas (helical or spiral) and pteron (wing or feather).
The primary advantages of the helicopter are due to its rotor, which provides lift in a vertical direction, giving it the ability to take off and landing vertically and to maintain a steady hover in the air over a single point on the ground. This allows the helicopter to land to and take off from pinnacles and confined areas that airplanes are not able to use, including heliports in the middle of busy cities and rugged terrain in remote areas. The helicopter has traditionally been used as a rescue, medical evacuation and observation platform. Other operations that involve the use of helicopters are fire fighting, tours, logging, personnel transport, electronic news gathering, law enforcement and military.
Although many helicopters were developed and built during the first half century of flight, some even reaching limited production, it wasn’t until 1942 that a helicopter designed by Igor Sikorsky became the first helicopter to enter full-scale production, totalling over 400 copies. And even though most previous designs utilized more than one main rotor, it was the single main rotor with antitorque tail rotor configuration of this design that would come to be recognized worldwide as the helicopter
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