What is the fastest possible speed for a helicopter to fly?

Answer 1

The maximum forward speed in a helicopter is limited by a phenomena called "retreating blade stall."

The retreating blade...the one going backwards...produces less lift than the advancing blade because it is flying opposite the relative wind produced by forward flight. As a result, at a high forward airspeed, the retreating blade, in effect, loses all lift and the helicopter will roll over as the retreating blade encounters an aerodynamic stall.

Some helicopters are designed with two sets of blades that counter rotate and attain a much higher speed than a single rotor helicopter.

A helicopter could also be designed with a very long rotor span and a very high rotor RPM and would theoretically be able to fly supersonically.

The engineering, mechanics, weight and structure penalties make this type of design impractical however.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retreating_blade_stall

(I'm an ex-Army helicopter pilot.)

Answer 2

Fastest Helicopter Speed

Answer 3

Well the fastest Helicopter was the Lockheed AH-56A which was developed in the early 70's with a revolutionary type of rear rotor which rotated 90 degrees and acted like a "pusher" to the aircraft. It was canceled due to a new requirement for night-time service (which was not in the original contract) cost overruns etc. The actual top speed was over 250mph, although a prototype, production aircraft were predicted to go faster

Answer 4

Varies by which helicopter... Some fly appx 200 mph. some can't go that fast... some go faster....

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The Westland Lynx is a helicopter designed by West- land and built at Westland's factory in Yeovil. Originally intended as a utility craft for both civil and naval usage, interest led to the development of the Lynx, which was later adopted by over a dozen nations. The helicopter is now produced and marketed by Agusta Westland. Several aircraft were built under license by Aerospat- iale.

In 1972, when piloted by Roy Moxam, it broke the world record over 15 and 25 km by flying at 321.74 km/h. It also set a new 100 km closed circuit record shortly after wards, flying at 318.504 km/h. In 1986, a specially modified Westland Lynx piloted by John Egginton set an ab- solute speed record for helicopters over a 15 and 25 km course by reaching 400.87 km/h (249.09 mp/h).

Answer 5

At a European air show on August 6, 1986 a slightly modified version of the ZB500 G-Lynx, manufacturered by GKN Westland Helicopters (UK), set the world speed record for a conventional helicopter at 217.5 Kts (400.80 km/h or 249.10 mph).

The theoretical top speed for a rotory winged aircraft is about 250 mph (402 km/h).

Answer 6

The current World Helicopter Speed Record is held by the Westland Lynx at 217.5 Kts (402 km/h) using specially designed high-speed rotor blades.

Answer 7

For any helicopter or a particular model? Clarify your question. But the fastest speed possible for a helicopter would be any helicopter's max speed.

Answer 8

TV show about helicopters on the Military channel last night (Sunday 2/18/2007) said 249mph is the top speed achieved.

Answer 9

A helicopter generates carry through pushing air round with its propellor, previous a particular top the ambience is basically too skinny and it can not generate carry. an similar is actual for different air-respiration engines like jets. it is precisely the problem with attempting to commute in area. plane conflict through an infinite furnish of propellant (the air). area, on the different hand, is a vacuum, so that they ought to carry their propellant with them. it may well be as if a jet had to carry a huge tank of air to feed through its jet engines, quite of basically utilising outside air. the nearest plausible aspect to what you intend is a jet-rocket hybrid. this can be a scheme wherein the spacecraft would use a severe-performance airbreathing engine (like a scramjet) to construct up lots of the speed it needed contained in the ambience, and then used a rocket for the most suitable push into orbit. it would nonetheless ought to carry dissimilar gasoline, yet because it would also get dissimilar "free" gasoline from the air throughout the time of its ascent the gasoline cost reductions will be marvelous.

Answer 10

The short answer is about 250 miles per hour. Here's just one of a cable guy's buttcrack full of links that explains what everyone here is trying to explain.

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/design/helicopter/velocity.shtml