Helicopter dynamics is a field within
aerospace engineering
Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...
concerned with theoretical and practical aspects of
helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...
flight. Its comprises helicopter aerodynamics, stability, control, structural dynamics, vibration, and aeroelastic and aeromechanical stability.
By studying the forces in helicopter flight, improved helicopter designs can be made, though due to the scale and speed of the dynamics, physical testing is non-trivial and expensive. In 2013, a combination of
stereophotogrammetry and
rigid-body correction in
post processing was shown to be a valid tool for performing these studies, and the dynamics of a Robinson R44 helicopter were measured during hovering flight, to determine blade dynamics (e.g. harmonics) and the deflection profile.
See also
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Flight dynamics (aircraft)
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Disc loading
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Rotordynamics
Rotordynamics (or rotor dynamics) is a specialized branch of applied mechanics concerned with the behavior and diagnosis of rotating structures. It is commonly used to analyze the behavior of structures ranging from jet engines and steam turbin ...
References
Aerospace engineering
Helicopters
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