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Introduction

A helicopter is a kind of aircraft. Unlike an airplane, a helicopter can fly straight up and down, sideways, or backward. It can also spin around or hover motionless in the air. Helicopters can fly lower than airplanes can, too.

How a Helicopter Flies

Like an airplane, a helicopter flies using wings. A helicopter’s wings are thin, narrow blades that rotate, or spin around. The blades on top of a helicopter, along with the parts that connect them, are called the main rotor. The main rotor is connected to an engine. The engine sends power to the main rotor to spin the blades. Most helicopters have just one main rotor, but some have two or more.

As the blades spin, air pushes against them. A helicopter pilot has controls that change the position of the blades. This affects how the air hits them. The pilot also controls how much power the engine sends to the rotor. Using these controls together, the pilot can move the helicopter up, down, forward, backward, or sideways.

A helicopter also has a small set of blades in the back. This is called the tail rotor. To turn the helicopter, the pilot pushes pedals that move the tail rotor. The tail rotor also keeps the helicopter from spinning around.

Uses

Helicopters are useful because they can fly almost anywhere. They are used to rescue people from disasters such as fires, floods, and earthquakes. Helicopters can quickly carry injured people to a hospital. They can even land on the roofs of some hospitals and other buildings. Armies use helicopters to attack the enemy and to carry soldiers and equipment. Police use helicopters to look for criminals. Farmers use them to spread seeds and fertilizers on their fields.

History

People in China and Europe made toys that worked like helicopters many hundreds of years ago. In the 1400s the Italian artist and engineer Leonardo da Vinci drew an aircraft much like today’s helicopters. It was never built. In 1843 an English inventor built a helicopter powered by a steam engine. It could barely get off the ground.

By the 1900s more powerful engines were available. Engineers used these engines to improve the helicopter. They also made improvements that helped keep helicopters stable in the air. The first successful helicopters were built in Germany in the 1930s. After that, engineers designed new types of helicopters that were used for all kinds of different purposes.

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Did You Know?

The autogiro was an early kind of helicopter. It looked like an airplane with rotating blades on top.

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