Science Reference

Helicopter

A helicopter is an aircraft which is lifted and propelled by one or more horizontal rotors (propellers).

Helicopters are classified as rotary-wing aircraft to distinguish them from conventional fixed-wing aircraft.

Compared to conventional fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters are much more complex, more expensive to buy and operate, relatively slow, have shorter range and restricted payload.

The compensating advantage is maneuverability: helicopters can hover in place, reverse, and above all take off and land vertically.

Subject only to refueling facilities and load/altitude limitations, a helicopter can travel to any location, and land anywhere with enough space (approximately twice the area of the rotor disk)..

For more information about the topic Helicopter, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:

Note: This page refers to an article that is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the article Helicopter at Wikipedia.org. See the Wikipedia copyright page for more details.

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