How a Helicopter Fly and Constructed?

Airframe

It is made up of either metal wood or composite material or combination of any two typically a composite made up of many layer of fibre impregnated resins, bonded together to form a smooth panel.

The design of airframe includes engineering aerodynamics, material technology and manufacturing method to achieve a favourable balance of performance reliability and the overall cost.

Fuselage

As one can see in the figure that it is the outer core of the frame, the fuselage of the helicopter include the main body section that houses the cabin that hold the crew, cargo and passenger.

Especially in the helicopter pilot seat differ with a helicopter. In most of the Cases pilot Seated in the right side but in few of the helicopter pilot Seated in left or centre.

Rotor system

Rotor is one of the most important mechanisms of the helicopter which is directly connected to the airfoil and generates lift.

It is consist of a mast, hub and rotor blades. Mast, it is a hollow cylinder shape metal shaft which goes upwards or extended to, from and it is supported by the transmission.

Attachment point of the rotor blades is called as hub.

Swash plate

Swash plate is used to convert the stationary input into rotating input which can be connected to the rotor blades.

There are two swash plate is used in the whole swash plate assembly: stationary swash plate and rotating swash plate.

Airfoil

The helicopter flies on the same principle that any aircraft flies. Because in the helicopter too aerodynamic forces are necessary to keep the helicopter aloft are produced when the air passes around the rotor blades of the helicopter.

The airfoil is one of the important parts that make the flight possible. Airfoil shapes produce lift when it through the air. There are two types of airfoils

Symmetrical and Non symmetrical

In the symmetrical airfoil, the upper and lower surface are identical and produces less lift. But in case of non symmetrical airfoil it’s upper and lower surface are different from each other and that help to produce the lift.

The benefit of the non-symmetrical airfoil is that it increases the lift drag ratios and more desirable stall characteristics. In the early stage of the helicopter, the non-symmetrical airfoil was not used because the centre of pressure location moved too much when the attack angle was changed.
Factors affecting the performance of the helicopter:

There are mainly three factors which affect the performance of a helicopter mostly. These are

Altitude

Altitude is one of the most important factor in the helicopter mechanism and it affects the performance of the helicopter in the density of the air, which decreases as the altitude increases.

It is well known that the increasing density increases the requirements of power in hover and decreases the speed.

When the helicopter fly at the high altitude with the high speed is the result of the lower density of the air at that altitude, results in less power requirements because of the parasitic drag.

Weight

Reduction of weight is the Holy Grail for the whole aviation industry; it is something which everyone wants but difficult to get it.

Weight of the helicopter depends on the size. When the weight of the helicopter increases, the excess power becomes less, but it is especially affected at lower airspeed because of the induced drag.

High gross weight affects the maximum height at which the helicopter can fly in the ground effect for a given power available.

Under all these conditions it can be concluded that heavier the helicopter, lower the maximum hover altitude.

Wind

The direction of the wind and velocity directly affect the hovering, takeoff and climbing performance of the helicopter.

As the wind speed increases, translational lift increases, result less power is required in hovering. Apart from the magnitude of the wind velocity, its direction is also essential.

Headwind is the most desirable parameter in the hovering process because it gives the greatest increase in performance.

This is all major component of a Helicopter and general working of it.