how do the propellers on a helicopter actually make the vehicle able to fly?
In: Engineering
Wings provide lift when there’s air rushing around them.
Airplanes move the whole vehicle forwards and have their wings fixed.
Helicopters just spin their wings really fast around in circles.
Wings work by deflecting air downwards. As they push the air down, the air pushes the wing up.
Helicopter’s can also control how much tilt their wings have, causing it to push down more or less air depending on if they need to go more up or down.
~~You may have heard some wrongs stuff about the wing shape causing weird pressure effects (like sucking it up because of low pressure), but the main thing is how much air it’s deflecting. If it was only weird pressure effects, then planes would not be able to fly upside-down without falling out of the sky.~~
EDIT: turns out the bernoulli suction explanation is also a valid description, saying the same thing in different terms. Though I feel the deflection is explanation is more intuitive for the helicopter example considering how much more often they tilt the entire wing.
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