33 Helicopters

A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally-spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft and many forms of VTOL aircraft cannot perform.

A utility helicopter is a multi-purpose helicopter capable of fulfilling many different roles.

Advanced Turbine Engine Company (ATEC) is an American aerospace joint venture created in 2006. A project of Honeywell International Inc. and Pratt & Whitney, ATEC was formed to compete for a government contract to create a 3,000 shaft horsepower engine to replace the existing 2,000 shaft horsepower T700 engine powering the U.S. Army's Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk and Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopters.

An aerial crane or flying crane is a helicopter used to lift heavy or awkward loads. As aerial cranes, helicopters carry loads connected to long cables or slings in order to place heavy equipment when other methods are not available or economically feasible, or when the job must be accomplished in remote or inaccessible areas, such as the tops of tall buildings or the top of a hill or mountain, far from the nearest road. Helicopters were first used as aerial cranes in the 1950s, but it was not until the 1960s that their popularity in construction and other industries began to catch on. The most consistent use of helicopters as aerial cranes is in the logging industry to lift large trees out of rugged terrain where vehicles aren't able to reach, or where environmental concerns prohibit roadbuilding. These operations are referred to as longline because of the long, single sling line used to carry the load.

Airlink was the brand name of a helicopter shuttle service which ran between London's two main airports, Gatwick and Heathrow, between 1978 and 1986. Operated jointly by British Caledonian Airways and British Airways Helicopters using a Sikorsky S-61 owned by the British Airports Authority, the "curious and unique operation" connected the rapidly growing airports in the years before the M25 motorway existed. Although at one point the service was granted a licence to operate until 1994, the Secretary of State for Transport intervened and revoked the licence with effect from February 1986—by which time the continued existence of the link had become "a highly controversial issue" debated by Members of Parliament, airlines, airport operators, local authorities and many other interest groups. No similar service has operated between the airports since Airlink's cessation.

The American Helicopter Museum & Education Center (AHMEC) is located at 1220 American Boulevard, West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States. The transport museum focuses on the history, science and technology of rotary wing aviation. The collection contains over 40 civilian and military, autogyros, convertiplanes and helicopters, including some early generation models. The museum also has an extensive research library, the Renzo Pierpaoli Memorial Library, which contains documents, artifacts, films, and memoirs that museum members can use.

American Sportscopter, Inc., also called American Sportscopter International, Inc., was an American aircraft manufacturer based in Newport News, Virginia. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of helicopters in the form of the Ultrasport line of kits for amateur construction in the homebuilt aircraft and the US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles categories.

A backpack helicopter is a helicopter motor and rotor and controls assembly that can be strapped to a person's back, so they can walk about on the ground wearing it, and can use it to fly. It uses a harness like a parachute harness and should have a strap between the legs. Some designs may use a ducted fan design to increase upward thrust. Several inventors have tried to make backpack helicopters, with mixed results.

The bamboo-copter, also known as the bamboo dragonfly or Chinese top, is a toy helicopter rotor that flies up when its shaft is rapidly spun. This helicopter-like top originated in Jin dynasty China around 320 A.D., and was the object of early experiments by English engineer George Cayley, the inventor of modern aeronautics.

The black helicopter is a symbol of an alleged conspiratorial military takeover of the United States in the American militia movement, and has also been associated with UFOs, especially in the UK, men in black, and similar conspiracies.

A door gunner is a crewman tasked with firing and maintaining manually directed armament aboard a military helicopter. The actual role will vary depending on the task given on a particular mission. For certain aircraft a door gunner would use a fully automatic Gatling gun placement. On many larger aircraft such as military planes a turret is used along with heavy cannons.

A helicopter is susceptible to a rolling tendency, called dynamic rollover, when close to the ground, especially when taking off or landing. For dynamic rollover to occur, some factor has to first cause the helicopter to roll or pivot around a skid, or landing gear wheel, until its critical rollover angle is reached. Then, beyond this point, main rotor thrust continues the roll and recovery is impossible. If the critical rollover angle is exceeded, the helicopter rolls on its side regardless of the cyclic control corrections made.

A forward arming and refuelling point (FARP) or forward area refuelling point is a NATO term for an area where aircraft can be refuelled and re-armed at a distance closer to their area of operations than their main operating base. This reduced distance allows a faster turnaround time during sustained operations. FARPs are typically temporary, transitory facilities - particularly if the forward edge of the battle area is highly mobile, or if there is a high threat from enemy aircraft or artillery.

Heli-logging, or helicopter logging, is a method of logging that uses helicopters to remove cut trees from forests by lifting them on cables attached to a helicopter. Helicopter logging is often used in inaccessible areas of forests. Because the use of helicopters reduces the level of infrastructure required to log in a specific location, the method also helps to reduce the environmental impact of logging. It also can increase the productivity in these remote areas.

Heli-Sport srl is an Italian aircraft manufacturer based in Turin, founded by the Barbero brothers, Igo, Josy and Charlie. The company specializes in the design and manufacture of helicopters in the form of kits for amateur construction.

Helicopter noise reduction is a topic of research into designing helicopters which can be operated more quietly, reducing the public-relations problems with night-flying or expanding an airport. In addition, it is useful for military applications in which stealth is required: long-range propagation of helicopter noise can alert an enemy to an incoming helicopter in time to re-orient defenses.

A helicopter prison escape is made when an inmate escapes from a prison by means of a helicopter. This list includes prisoner escapes where a helicopter was used in an attempt to free prisoners from a place of internment, a prison or correctional facility.

The Helikopter-Streichquartett is one of Karlheinz Stockhausen's best-known pieces, and one of the most complex to perform. It involves a string quartet, four helicopters with pilots, as well as audio and video equipment and technicians. It was first performed and recorded in 1995. Although performable as a self-sufficient piece, it also forms the third scene of the opera Mittwoch aus Licht.

A heliport, helidrome or rotor station is an area of land, water, or structure used or intended to be used for the landing and takeoff of helicopters, and includes its buildings and facilities. In other words, it is a small airport suitable for use by helicopters and some other vertical lift platforms. Designated heliports typically contain one or more touchdown and liftoff area and may also have limited facilities such as fuel or hangars. In some larger towns and cities, customs facilities may also be available.

The Hoppi-Copter was a functional backpack helicopter developed by Hoppi-Copters Inc. founded by Horace T. Pentecost in the 1940s. The original Hoppi-Copter consisted of two contra-rotating rotors on a pole attached to a motorized backpack. Although it was capable of flight, it was extremely hard to control.

A human-powered helicopter (HPH) is a helicopter powered solely by one or more humans carried on board. As in other human-powered aircraft, the power is usually generated by pedalling. It remains a considerable engineering challenge to obtain both the power-to-weight ratio and rotor efficiency required to sustain a helicopter in flight.

Italian Rotors Industries Srl (IRI) was an Italian aircraft manufacturer based in Aprilia, Lazio. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of helicopters in the form ready-to-fly aircraft.

The Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci drew his design for an "aerial screw" in the late 1480s, while he was employed as a military engineer by Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan from 1494 to 1499. The original drawing is part of a manuscript dated to 1487 to 1490 and appears on folio 83-verso of Paris Manuscript B, part of the papers removed from the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in 1795 by Napoleon and still held by the Institut de France in Paris. The "aerial screw" was one of several aerial machines drawn by Leonardo, including an early parachute, an ornithopter and a hang glider.

The Malloy Hoverbike is a single-seater turbo-fan powered, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) quadrocopter developed in 2006 by New Zealand inventor Chris Malloy. The Hoverbike has two forward and two aft-mounted vertical propellers each enclosed in a hoop nacelle. The nacelles feature steerable blades beneath which control the direction of flight. Each propellor pair has partial overlap and when not in use they can be folded over each other to further reduce the parking footprint and make packing and transportation easier.

A monocopter or gyropter is a rotorcraft that uses a single rotating blade. The concept is similar to the whirling helicopter seeds that fall from some trees. The name gyropter is sometimes applied to monocopters in which the entire aircraft rotates about its center of mass as it flies. The name "monocopter" has also been applied to the personal jet pack constructed by Andreas Petzoldt.

The Pescara Model 3 was the first of several coaxial helicopter designs by Raúl Pateras Pescara to demonstrate sustained controlled helicopter flight.

Petróczy, Kármán and Žurovec were Hungarian and Czech engineers who worked on helicopter development immediately before and during World War I. Between them they produced two experimental prototypes, the PKZ-1 and PKZ-2, intended to replace the dangerous hydrogen-filled observation balloons then in use. As such, these craft were tethered on long cables and were not intended to fly freely. After the war other engineers, notably Oszkár von Asboth, further developed the design.

Redback Aviation is an Australian aircraft manufacturer based in Hoppers Crossing, Victoria. The company is engaged in the development of kit and plans-built helicopter designs for amateur construction.

Shipboard helicopter operations is the use of techniques which allows operation of rotary wing aircraft from naval vessels. In the case of military vessels the operations also include tactics and associated weapons and troops.

The Softex-Aero V-51 is a Ukrainian helicopter design.

A helicopter main rotor or rotor system is the combination of several rotary wings and a control system that generates the aerodynamic lift force that supports the weight of the helicopter, and the thrust that counteracts aerodynamic drag in forward flight. Each main rotor is mounted on a vertical mast over the top of the helicopter, as opposed to a helicopter tail rotor, which connects through a combination of drive shaft(s) and gearboxes along the tail boom. The blade pitch is typically controlled by a swashplate connected to the helicopter flight controls. Helicopters are one example of rotary-wing aircraft (rotorcraft). The name is derived from the Greek words helix, helik-, meaning spiral; and pteron meaning wing.

Ultralight helicopters are classified as ultralight aircraft by the FAA and as Very Light Rotorcraft (VLR) by the EASA.