Isn’t forward motion created by moving more air?
In: Engineering
One thing to keep in mind is that the helicopters massive rotors are nice but the extra length isn’t as useful as you think. The tips of the rotors can’t go faster than the speed of sound. Therefore, an airplane with short propellers can spin those propellers at a much higher RPM than a helicopter.
Helicopters also have this problem in that the blade(s) on one side of the machine are moving with the forward movement of the helicopter and the blade(s) on the other side are moving against the forward movement of the helicopter. The speed of the helicopter needs to be limited so the advancing side remains below the speed of sound and the retreating side isn’t slowed to a stall. Helicopter blades are extra big because this is pretty inefficient.
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