A Brief Introduction to

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
its 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

Other possibilities: Tip jets, tip mounted engines

Question:

Why do each of these methods work?

What are the likely advantages and disadvanta
disadvant

Configurations of Rotorcraft
Main Rotor - Tail Rotor Config.

Configurations of Rotorcraft
Tandem Rotors (Chinook)

Configurations of Rotorcraft
Coaxial Rotors (Kamov KA-52)

Configurations of Rotorcraft
NOTAR Helicopter

Configurations of Rotorcraft
Tilt Rotor (BA 609)

Unequal Lift Distribution

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

There are many ways to deal with these problems. One

example would be the airfoil selection.

Rotor Descent States

Ground Interactions

At low forward speeds, less power is required.

Airfoil Design
Rotorcraft present an interesting problem for
airfoil design.
Fixed Wing Aircraft can be designed for certain
conditions.
The Rotorcraft environment changes rapidly
as the blade travels around the rotor disk.

Airfoil Design
Reynolds Number and Mach Number

Airfoil Design
Four Rules of Rotorcraft Airfoil Design
High CLmax
High MDD
Good L/D over a wide range of Mach
Numbers
Low Cm

Design constraints are much narrower

for rotorcraft. (I.e.: Cm 0.02)

Early Helicopter Airfoil Design

Initially, symmetric airfoils were used
Low Pitching Moment, Cm
Cyclic Pitch

Juan de la Cierva
Autogyros
First to use a cambered airfoil
Resulted in a crash in 1939

Crash and low torsional stiffness

resulted in universal use of symmetric
airfoil until the 1960s.

The 60s & 70s Revolution

Vast Improvements in Modern Computers
allowed engineers to utilized them.
Panel Methods
Inviscid Solutions but still insightful

Conformal Mapping introduced into computer

codes
Reintroduction of Cambered Airfoils
Computer design
Improved Structures

More concentration on transonic effects

The 60s & 70s Revolution

Example: YAH-64 Apache, 1976
Heavy use of computer during design process.
Reduced amount of wind tunnel testing necessary
Design costs and time decrease

Started with a NACA 63A-410 and ended with the

HH-02

1980s Airfoil Development

Trailing Edge Tabs
Offset the pitching moment of a cambered airfoil
By simple application of thin-airfoil theory, one
may see the effect.
Research showed that these tabs led to a small
increase in drag and little effect on lift.

1990s Development
Change blade geometries
British Experimental Rotor Program
(BERP)
Developed to deal with tip effects on blade.
Transonic Effects (Advancing Side)
High Alpha Stall (Retreating Side)

2000 and Beyond

Morphing Technologies
Gurney Flaps
Keeps flow attached in high alpha conditions.

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 dont fly. They beat the air
into submission.
~ Dr. Ed Smith