Technews

Without a Tail Rotor, a Helicopter Would Turn in Circles!

To make a helicopter fly, the pilot raises the collective and increases the lift on the rotor blades in order to lift the helicopter into the hover.  However, this causes a definite problem.

If the blades are whirling anti-clockwise, as most helicopter blades do, the fuselage will start to rotate clockwise, due to torque reaction.  This is due to  Newton’s Third Law, which states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. If you haven’t heard of this, one of the easiest ways of explaining it is to imagine a boat moored close to the shore.  If you are in the boat and push on the land, the land doesn’t move, but the boat does!

This is an example of Newton’s Third Law.