As the title says, why do Hueys have 2 blades, while most others have 4, or the Sea Stallion has 6? And if you put 6 on a 4, does that mean more lift and better performance?
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There’s a lot of things at play here but it comes down to the engine of the helicopter and its intended use. More blades produce more lift without having to rotate as fast but they’re heavier and cause more drag. This means that a large powerful engine can spin them relatively slowly and get the necessary lift but a smaller engine would struggle to spin that rotor. There’s also various other factors like noise and what loads the helicopter is expected to lift or how high it will go. Then we’re putting in even more factors like cost and maintenance ease and complexity.
But to not get too complex the point here is that if a helicopter has “few” rotor blades as opposed to all helicopters having, say, 8 rotor blades, the simple answer is that it doesn’t need to have more. It’s use and capabilities are more than covered with the fewer blades.
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