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A Brief Introduction to 1 8 5 5
Helicopters
Robert L. Roedts II
The Pennsylvania State University
Rotorcraft Center of Excellence
What is a Helicopter?
• Unique Features
– Rotating-wing vehicles
– Ability to hover
– Land and take-off vertically
– Fly forward, backward and sideways
• Helicopters are closely related to
autogyros and tiltrotors.
Motivation
• The overall unique aspect of a helicopter is
it’s ability to hover for extended periods of
time.
• The ability to hover it a very useful attribute.
– An good example is that of a hummingbird.
Helicopters at Work
• With this ability to hover, helicopters can
perform a wide range of missions.
Comparison of Fixed-Wing
Aircraft and Helicopters
• Fixed Wing Aircraft
Comparison of Fixed-Wing
Aircraft and Helicopters
• Helicopter
Configurations of Rotorcraft
• Many different ways to counter Reactive Torque
Vtip R V
Vtip R V
Vtip R
Lift ~ V2
High-Speed Forward Flight
Limitations
• As the forward speed increases, advancing side
experiences shock effects, retreating side stalls. This
limits thrust available.
• Vibrations go up, because of the increased dynamic
pressure, and increased harmonic content.
• Shock noise goes up.
• Fuselage drag increases, and parasite power
consumption goes up as V3.
• We need to understand and accurately predict the air
loads in high speed forward flight.
Interactional Aerodynamics
• Unsteady Aerodynamics
– Current design methods assume static CLmax & Cm
as in a steady flow condition.
– With blade wake interactions, this is not the case.
– Current research is concentrated in this area
where a N-S solver will be used along side the
Eppler code to design airfoils.
References
• Gessow, A. and Myers, G.C., Aerodynamics of the Heilcopter,
3rd Edition, College Park Press, College Park, MD, 1999.
• J. Seddon, Basic Helicopter Aerodynamics, 2nd Edition, AIAA,
Washington, DC, 2001.
• Leishman, J. G., Principles of Helicopter Aerodynamics, 2nd
Edition, Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, 2005.
• McCormick, B. W., Aerodynamics of V/STOL Flight, Academic
Press, Inc., New York, NY, 1967.
• Johnson, W. Helicopter Theory, Princeton University Press,
Princeton, NJ, 1980.
Final Thought
“Helicopters don’t fly. They beat the air
into submission.”
~ Dr. Ed Smith