What makes a helicopter move forward when it flies?

Answer 1

A helicopter has the same 4 basic forces acting on it as any heavier than air aircraft.

Gravity
Lift
Thrust
Drag

Increase any of those parameters and it will cause the aircraft to descend, climb, accelerate, or slow down, respectively. Decrease and it will do the opposite.

In a level constant speed flight:

gravity = lift
thrust = drag

A helicopter also has the same basic movements as any aircraft:

Yaw = nose L-R, vertical axis
Pitch = nose up-down, transverse horizontal axis
Roll = turn, longitudinal hoizontal axis

A helicopter has a rotating wing called a rotor. It's very complex, but let's keep it simple. In a hover in a zero wind condition, the rotor is producing exactly as much lift as there is gravity, and it is not producing any thrust. The rotor disk is perfectly horizontal, so there is no drag or thrust. Now if the pilot chooses to move forward, s/he moves the cyclic (right hand) ahead, which causes increased pitch as the blades are at the back of the rotor disk, and exactly the same amount of decrease in pitch at the front. This causes the rotor disk to tilt forward, and the helicopter will move ahead because now in addition to the lift we have thrust. Now if the pilot doesn't do anything else, the helicopter will very rapidly crash to earth because the rotor has now lost part of its lift to thrust, so the pilot must also add some collective (left hand), which increases the pitch on the entire disk as the blades travel around the hub. One more thing the pilot has to worry about is RPM, because as the power demand from the main and tail rotors change, the engine throttle (twist grip on collective control) must be adjusted to maintain the right power setting. If the pilot doesn't do anything else, the helicopter will rotate (to the right if its US built) out of control because there is now extra torque in the main rotor that needs to be compensated with the tail rotor (foot pedals). But that takes more power, so s/he needs to add more throttle and that will cause the helicopter to move to the right, so now you need to correct to the left. Its a never ending process that takes some practice.

If s/he wants to slow down, just reverse all these steps.

So basically its the tilting of the main rotor that controls the flight direction of the helicopter. Tilting to the left causes the helicopter to move to the left (with right pedal input) in a hover, and tilting to the left in flight will turn to the left.

Don't even ask about gyroscopic precession, translational lift, coaxial rotors, and vortex ring state yet!

Sorry id ego, turbine helicopters don't use any engine thrust! The engine is used only to provide torque to the two transmissions on conventional helicopters. There have been some experimental designs using auxiliary jet engines to provide thrust, but they ran into problems with compressibility stall and retreating blade stall. The only way to go faster than about 160 knots in level flight in a helicopter is to provide lift with wings.

Answer 2

A helicopter has a rotor (large propeller) on top which lifts the helicopter when he pulls back the "collective" lever. The pilot then pushes his cyclic control forward this causes the rotor to change it's plane forward (tilt forward). This combination of lift and thrust to the rear , lifts and propels the craft forward. It uses a small rotor at the tail to counteract torque (twisting) of the craft and make changes in boom direction.

Answer 3

They tilt the helicopter forward slightly so that some of the lift provided by the rotation of the blades actually moves the helicopter forward. The more they tilt it forwards the faster it goes.

Answer 4

To answer this question, we need to take a more detailed look at the mechanics of a helicopter rotor and define a few new terms for discussing the rotor. As a helicopter rotor is rotating about its vertical axis, the blades are constantly changing, not only in location, but also in pitch, and more importantly in angle with respect to the vertical axis. It is this variation in angle that gives the helicopter a forward motion. Each of these changes to the blades happens in turn, so let's look at each one in more detail.

The blade's change in location is the most obvious. As the blade rotates around the vertical axis, its location is changing. At one point in time, the blade will be aligned with the nose of the helicopter, and a tenth of a second later, that same blade will be aligned with the tail.

As the blades rotate, their pitch, which is defined as the rotation of the blade along its length, is constantly changing. There are two different types of these changes in pitch, and they are both the result of pilot inputs. The two different types of blade pitch changes are "collective" and "cyclic," and they share their names with the pilot controls used to control them. When a pilot wants to go up or down, he or she uses the "collective," which is mounted to the left of the seat. This control collectively changes the pitch of all the blades the same amount, increasing or decreasing the total lift of the rotor, and causing the aircraft to climb or descend. When a pilot wants to move forward, backward, or to the side, he or she uses the "cyclic" which is usually mounted between the legs. This control cyclically changes the pitch of the blades as they rotate. Let's consider the pilot wants to fly forward. He or she would then push the cyclic forward, which would cause the rotor blades to increase in pitch as they approach the rear of the helicopter, increasing lift in that area. If the pilot uses enough cyclic control, this can cause the entire helicopter to tilt forward, allowing the rotor to pull the helicopter through the air. This is often seen in war movies, since it is the best way to get going quickly, since a large portion of the rotor's thrust is pulling the helicopter forward. Believe it or not though, a helicopter can remain perfectly level and still move forward, backward or sideways, with the help of "flapping hinges."

Most people don't realize how complex a modern helicopter rotor really is. Along with the collective and cyclic controls, there are also various hinges, which allow the blades to move in different directions. The ones we are concerned with here are the "flapping hinges," which actually allow the blades to "flap" up and down as they rotate. The centrifugal force of the rotating blades keeps them from flapping out of control. Since the blades are free to move up and down like this, aerodynamicists use the term "tip path plane," (or TPP) which is defined as the flat plane that the tips of the blades create as they rotate. When a pilot inputs forward cyclic, this causes the blades at the rear of the helicopter to flap upwards, which causes the TPP to tilt forward. This forward tilt to the TPP then causes the helicopter to move forward. The illustration below shows the TPP for a helicopter both in hover (blue TPP) and forward flight (orange TPP).

Answer 5

The helicopter tilts forward and the blades provide both lift & thrust forward. Also, some helicopters have jet exhaust that exits rearward.

Answer 6

The pitch of the rotor blades is made steeper at the back than at the front, so the aircraft pitches forward and moves in that direction. Turbine choppers also have thrust coming out the back of the engine, which pushes the chopper forward.

Answer 7

The pilot slightly tilts the helicopter forward, so the main rotors are facing up and somewhat forward, pulling the chopper forward while keeping it aloft.

Answer 8

Tilting the blades slightly forward so that some of the thrust from the rotor blades is directed backward (not just down).

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A pilot maneuvers the helicopter by changing the pitch, or angle, of the rotor blades as they move through the air.

Answer 9

The engine The pilot the upkeep team A helicopter rotor and an plane propeller are the two examples of rotating wings. It takes an remarkable quantity of ability, yet a helicopter rotor is largely a propeller that hoists the device aloft by brute stress. It takes remarkable ability by the pilot, and it demands an remarkable quantity of upkeep to maintain a helicopter flying. that's what they advise while they are asserting a helicopter is truly an remarkable flying device.

Answer 10

Same principal as the propeller on an airplane. The top rotor tilts towards the front "sucking" the helicopter along with it.