50 Fun Facts About Helicopters

What supplies the lift and thrust for a helicopter?

That is what lets it take off and land vertically, hover, and fly backwards and sideways where fixed-wing aircraft cannot.

From which language does the word 'helicopter' come?

Gustave Ponton d'Amécourt coined hélicoptère in 1861 from the Greek helix (spiral) and pteron (wing).

Which two Greek roots make up the word 'helicopter'?

English speakers rebracketed it as heli- and -copter, which is why we say helipad and quadcopter.

What is the common US military slang for a helicopter?

Civilian nicknames include chopper, copter, heli and whirlybird.

Which was the first successful, practical and fully controllable helicopter, in 1936?

Hanna Reitsch famously demonstrated it indoors at Berlin's Deutschlandhalle in February 1938.

Which helicopter was the first to reach full-scale production, in 1942?

It was the only Allied helicopter to serve in World War II, mostly on search and rescue in Burma and Alaska; 131 were built.

Which 1939 Sikorsky design became the template for modern helicopters?

Igor Sikorsky refined it through four iterations between 1939 and 1943 before settling on the small tail rotor.

What is the purpose of a helicopter's tail rotor?

Without it, the fuselage would spin the opposite way to the main rotor; the pedals change its pitch to steer the nose.

Which anti-torque system uses the Coandă effect on the tail boom instead of a tail rotor?

The name stands for 'no tail rotor'; the Fenestron and FANTAIL are ducted fans instead.

What is a helicopter with intermeshing counter-rotating rotors called?

The rotors are angled so they mesh over the top of the aircraft without colliding; the wartime Flettner Fl 282 Kolibri used the layout.

How many flight control inputs does a helicopter pilot have?

The cyclic, the collective, the anti-torque pedals and the throttle, which is a motorcycle-style twist grip on the collective.

Which control changes the pitch of all main rotor blades at the same time?

It sits on the left of the pilot's seat; raising it increases lift so the helicopter climbs or speeds up.

Where is the cyclic stick usually located?

It tilts the rotor disk to move the helicopter in hover and acts like an aeroplane's stick in forward flight.

What is the throttle on most helicopters?

It is mounted on the collective and keeps rotor RPM within a narrow allowable range.

What is the emergency descent called when the rotor is turned by air rather than the engine?

A freewheel clutch lets the rotor disengage from a failed engine so it can keep spinning and cushion the landing.

Which part of flying a helicopter is described as the most challenging?

Adjusting any one control demands adjustments of the other two, so an inexperienced pilot can fall into pilot-induced oscillation.

Roughly what airspeed does a helicopter need to reach translational lift?

Flying out of its own downwash gives extra lift without extra power, which some heavy helicopters need just to get airborne.

How fast does a typical main rotor turn?

The transmission gears the engine's 3,000-50,000 RPM down; a tail rotor spins faster, at 1,000-5,000 RPM.

Which helicopter became the world's first turbine-powered helicopter in December 1951?

Charles Kaman fitted a turboshaft to his synchropter at the Navy's urging; the Alouette II was the first produced with a turbine.

Which was the first helicopter certified for civilian use in the United States?

Certified in March 1946, it stayed the world's most popular model for nearly 30 years and grew from Arthur Young's Model 30.

Around what date did Chinese children first play with bamboo flying tops?

The bamboo-copter is spun by rolling a stick attached to a rotor; it inspired Western scientists into the 19th century.

What did Leonardo da Vinci call his 1480s vertical-flight design?

His notes suggest small models, but nothing to stop the rotor spinning the whole craft round.

Which toy, powered by rubber bands, inspired the Wright brothers to pursue flight?

Alphonse Pénaud developed the toys in 1870; the brothers' father gave them one as a gift.

Which new metal was d'Amécourt's 1861 steam helicopter model celebrated for using?

The model never lifted off, but the word he coined for it survived.

Which Italian pioneer's steam helicopter rose 13 metres over Milan in 1877?

Milan named its Linate city airport and the neighbouring park after him.

What did Thomas Edison try to power his 1885 helicopter engine with?

He made it from stock-ticker paper; explosions damaged the machine and badly burned a worker.

The 1907 Breguet Gyroplane No. 1 is possibly the earliest example of what?

It lifted a pilot about 0.6 m for a minute, but needed a man at each corner to steady it, so it was not a free flight.

Who made the first truly free helicopter flight with a pilot, on 13 November 1907?

His machine rose 0.3 m for 20 seconds; it later reached nearly 2 m but was too unstable and was abandoned.

Which Spanish engineer invented the autogyro, the first practical rotorcraft?

He flew one across the English Channel in 1928; autogyros delivered mail in New Jersey before helicopters existed.

Which pilot demonstrated the Fw 61 inside Berlin's Deutschlandhalle in 1938?

The Fw 61 went on to set FAI records including an altitude of 3,427 m and a speed of 124 km/h.

How many helicopters had Igor Sikorsky's company built by the end of World War II?

The R-4 was followed by the R-5 and R-6; Sikorsky's rival LePage had built the Fw 61-style XR-1 in 1941.

What was the largest single non-combat helicopter operation in history?

Hundreds of pilots flew dozens of airdrop and observation sorties a day for several months.

What is the use of helicopters to fight wildland fires called?

Helibuckets such as the Bambi bucket are dunked in lakes and rivers; the Erickson S-64 Aircrane is a common helitanker.

In which war was the use of helicopters as air ambulances pioneered?

Time to reach a medical facility fell from eight hours in World War II to three hours, and to two hours by Vietnam.

How much does NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity weigh?

Its blades spin at nearly 3,000 RPM, about ten times faster than an Earth helicopter, because Mars's air is 100 times thinner.

Which pioneer of aviation built feather-bladed rotor models powered by rubber bands?

A childhood fascination with the Chinese flying top drove him; by the century's end he was using tin blades and spring power.

Which model is the most widespread civil helicopter, with about 5,600 in service?

The piston-engined R44 leads the H125/AS350 (3,600) and the Bell 206 (3,400).

Which is the largest helicopter ever to go into serial production?

NATO calls it Halo; it lifts up to 20 tonnes with an eight-blade main rotor, and only the experimental Mil V-12 was bigger.

How many blades does the Mi-26's main rotor have?

It was the first factory-built helicopter with a single eight-blade lift rotor; its tail rotor is as big as an MD 500's main rotor.

Which helicopter holds the FAI absolute speed record of 400.87 km/h, set in 1986?

Test pilot Trevor Egginton flew G-LYNX with special BERP rotor blades whose tips reached Mach 0.97.

Which helicopter landed on the summit of Mount Everest in May 2005?

Test pilot Didier Delsalle stripped out the passenger seats to save 120 kg for the FAI-confirmed record at 8,848 m.

What rotor layout does the Boeing CH-47 Chinook use?

Its name comes from the Chinook people of Oregon and Washington; it has stayed in production and frontline service for over 60 years.

What is the top speed of the CH-47 Chinook?

On its 1962 debut it was far faster than contemporary utility helicopters and remains one of the fastest in the US inventory.

Which company had the largest share of the in-service civil helicopter fleet in 2018?

Its 24.7% edged Airbus's 24.4%, with Bell at 20.5% and Leonardo at 8.4%.

What is the design airspeed limit of a helicopter called?

Beyond it the retreating blade can stall, causing severe vibration, pitch-up and a roll toward that side.

How many sorties did NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity complete before it was retired in January 2024?

Its two blades spun at close to 3,000 rpm, about ten times faster than a terrestrial helicopter, because the Martian air is so thin.

Which Frenchman set the first FAI-recognised helicopter world record in April 1924?

His quadrotor flew 360 metres; four days later Raúl Pateras-Pescara beat it with 736 metres.

In which campaign did the Sikorsky R-4, the only Allied helicopter of World War II, mainly serve?

The USAAF 1st Air Commando Group used it for search and rescue; total R-4 production reached 131.

Which Russian polymath showed a spring-powered coaxial rotor model to the Academy of Sciences in 1754?

It was modelled on the Chinese flying top and proposed as a way to lift meteorological instruments.

Which of these is NOT listed as an English nickname for a helicopter?

US military slang adds 'helo' to the list.