The first thing you notice is the hum-soft at first, like a distant air conditioner, then fuller, rounder, a living vibration that climbs into your bones as the rotors gather themselves. Dubai unfolds beneath the plexiglass as the helicopter eases up and forward: highways drafted with a ruler's confidence, towers catching light like sequins, the sea stitched to the city's edge in a calm, blue punctuation. It is a measure of this place that when you leave the ground, the story makes more sense. Lines, curves, grids, and galleries of glass become a single, legible sentence.
The Dubai Water Canal reveals itself slowly from above, a silver S carved through the city's midriff. From the helicopter it is a bright brushstroke, coiling from Business Bay to the Persian Gulf, as if the desert had been persuaded to make room for a new kind of river. Helicopter tour Dubai luxury flight experience Where it bends, the bridges arch with the quiet bravado that Dubai likes to wear: one slender, white suspension arc commonly called the Tolerance Bridge; others geometric, sculptural; all of them lit at night, so the canal becomes a necklace on the city's collarbone.
Engineers will talk about flow rates and dredging; planners will talk about connectivity and waterfront activation. But from two hundred meters up, what you feel is the simple miracle of water in a place that made its name defying thirst. Jumeirah helicopter tour The canal is not just a project, not just a promenade with cyclists and joggers and strollers. It is an annotation in the margin of a city that keeps revising itself. You can see the old creek to the east-the city's first chapter-and the glossy punctuation of the present around Business Bay. In between, the canal ties timelines together. It threads past Safa Park's softened green, gathers under Sheikh Zayed Road in a satin ribbon, and then turns toward Jumeirah, flirting with villas and marinas before reaching the open sea.
The pilot banks slightly so everyone gets a clean sweep of the view. Helicopter tour Jumeirah Beach . To the left, the Burj Khalifa spears the sky as if measuring time. Its reflection elongates in the canals and lakes of Downtown, turning architecture into calligraphy. Below, along the water, you spy the low choreography of daily life: strollers paused by railings, cyclists in bright jerseys, a child in red pointing at a passing boat; a couple posing on the bridge under an arch that frames more skyline than any lens can hold. When the helicopter slides over Sheikh Zayed Road, the canal's waterfall comes into view-a curtain of water that glows after sunset and parts to let boats pass.
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In daylight, it's a pale veil; at night, a neon tassel.
The air here changes by hour and season. Early mornings are mercifully crisp, and the city looks freshly ironed, heat still folded away. You can see farther, colors clipped and clean. The canal flashes mirror-like in that clarity, and the geometric logic of the place-grids, arcs, islands-feels precise, almost inevitable. By midday, haze softens the edges and the scene turns impressionistic, a watercolor of blues and beiges and glass. Sunset drapes everything in gold; then the bridges along the canal light up and you understand why some people prefer the night flight. From above, the illuminated walkway is a pulse, a line of human-scale brightness against the dark.
Dubai was once a port stitched to a creek and a trade route that relied on wind and maps. The canal is an update and an echo-an insistence that water can be drafted where it is wanted, not only found where it happens to be. Its serpentine course is not a concession to geography but a gesture of design. From the helicopter, you can read that gesture in context. The freeway lanes below are strummed with motion; towers stand like tuning forks; the sea waits patiently at the edge. The canal ties movement to rest, frenzy to promenade. It makes a waterfront out of a city that grows primarily upward, then asks people to slow down and walk.
People often book a helicopter tour to collect the headlines: Palm Jumeirah, a cameo of the Burj Al Arab, the improbable constellation of The World islands, the definitive spire of the Burj Khalifa. And all of that is there, shimmering like a showreel. But the canal is where scale reveals itself.
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From above, you see how a curve can organize neighborhoods, how a set of footbridges can stitch desire lines into the urban fabric, how the edge between land and water becomes a civic room. A yacht noses under a bridge; a runner crosses as if tracing the outline of the future-a small figure in a large plan.
The helicopter tilts again and the pilot's voice cracks lightly in your headset with a practiced calm. He notes a landmark, suggests a glance to the right, a reminder that you are sharing a narrow corridor in the sky with airliners that move like patient whales. You pull your camera back from the window, noticing your own reflection ghosted against the canal's sheen below. The trick is to look and then look again without the lens, to fix a few details in memory rather than megapixels: the Tolerance Bridge's single arc; the neat shadow it throws; the way sunlight ladders down a tower into the water; the way the canal writes a soft S through a city that prefers straight lines.
When you land, the thrum unwinds and the city's more ordinary noises take over: tires on asphalt, café chatter, the soft clink of cups on saucers.
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The canal, which looked like a signature drawn in light a few minutes earlier, becomes simply a place you can walk beside, the level where stories are collected in smaller, human units-conversations, footfalls, a bike bell, a child's question. You can go there later and stand on the bridge you saw from above, look down at the same arc of water, and understand what the helicopter gave you: perspective, not just spectacle.
A helicopter tour of the Dubai Canal doesn't erase the city's complexities or its thirst for awe. It makes them visible. It shows a desert metropolis rewriting itself with water and light, a planner's line transformed into a lived edge, a bird's view that returns you-quietly, unexpectedly-to the ground with a better sense of where you are.
About Tourism in the United Arab Emirates
Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world and a major tourist attraction of the United Arab Emirates.Jebel Jais, the highest mountain in the United Arab Emirates is part of Al Hajar Mountains.Rub al Khali desert on the outskirts of Liwa Oasis.
Tourism in the United Arab Emirates is an important part of the Emirati economy. In 2023, the tourism sector employed 809,300 people[1] and contributed 220 billion dirham to the national gross domestic product (GDP), accounting for 12% of it.[2] In 2024, the UAE was the 6th destination globally by international tourism receipts according to the World Tourism rankings,[3] and it ranked 18th globally in the Travel and Tourism Development Index.[4]
The country's major tourist attractions include the Burj Khalifa, Dubai Mall, and Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, and Al Hajar Mountains in Fujairah.[5][citation needed]
History
[edit]
When the country was first formed in 1971 and freed from British control, the country itself did not have any sufficient tourist industry and the economic situation of the newly established nation was weak, despite massive oil wealth. Realizing the need to develop the country, and the awareness of oil limits, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who initiated the foundation of the UAE, envisioned the plan to diversify the country's economy, in which tourism was specifically regarded.[6] The envision was eventually carried out, and in 1979, Sheikh Zayed opened the country's first-ever hotel, the Metropolitan Hotel Dubai located in Dubai.[7]
The development of tourism in the United Arab Emirates was heavily linked to the development of tourism in Dubai, which was one of the earliest emirates in the country to open for tourists. Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai from 1958 till 1990, realised one day Dubai would run out of oil and started building an economy that would outlast it.[8] Sheikh Rashid, together with Sheikh Zayed, was the instrumental leaders of leading the country's tourism, having made a joint declaration for the founding of the Emirates.[9] In 1989 the Dubai Commerce and Tourism Promotion Board was established, to promote Dubai as a luxury destination for the up-tier market and influential business sectors. In January 1997, it was replaced with the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM).[10]
Since 2000s, the United Arab Emirates have experienced a significant tourist boom, and increasing life standard and quality made the expenditure on tourism to rise, thus making it more important to the national economy.[11][12]
Tourist destinations
[edit]
Main article: List of tourist attractions in the United Arab Emirates
Abu Dhabi
[edit]
Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and is the second most popular tourist destination in the country, under the management of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority.[13] This is also the center of Formula One race in the country, the Yas Marina Circuit. Nonetheless, the city is also famous for its landscapes, given its proximity to the Persian Gulf. There are over ten beaches functioning in the city serving for tourist purpose.[14] The city is popular for its nightlife, more so than the more populous Dubai as it has lesser restriction and regular laws.[15] Abu Dhabi will become the home of Disneyland Abu Dhabi, the first Disney theme park in the Middle East.[16]
Dubai
[edit]
See also: Tourism in Dubai
Archipelagoes in Dubai.
Dubai is the most visited city in the United Arab Emirates, the most expensive city in the GCC and one of the most expensive cities in the world.[17] It is also the home of the two tallest towers in the world, the Burj Al Arab and Burj Khalifa, the latter occupies the top position. Nightlife in the city is also widely promoted.[18] The city is often seen as a symbol of rapid tourist success in the nation. Its richness encompassed by the rapid development and the mix with the local Arab culture made it a popular destination for tourists to travel. However, lack of general tourism development remains an obstacle which the Emirati authorities have sought to tackle.[19]
Fujairah
[edit]
Fujairah shares the Al-Hajar Mountains with Ras Al Khaimah, a major tourist attraction in the country. Outside the Hajar Mountains, the Fujairah Fort, Bitnah Fort, Snoopy Island, Masafi and Al Hayl Castle are also attractive destinations.[20] Fujairah holds a distinction for having a bull butting culture, a result of Portuguese colonization from 17th century.[21]
Ras Al Khaimah
[edit]
Ras Al Khaimah is known for its natural landscape.[22] The Al Hajar Mountains, in particular with mount Jebel Jais, the highest mountain of the country, offers views over craggy peaks down to the coastal plain, making this a common spot for photographers, particularly in the late afternoon when the orange-hued rocks glow.[citation needed] The world's longest zipline is also based in Ras Al Khaimah's Jebel Jais. Other include Dhayah Fort and its beach.[23]
By 2027, Ras Al Khaimah will feature the first integrated resort and casino in the country when Wynn Al Marjan Island opens.[24][25]
Sharjah
[edit]
See also: Tourism in Sharjah
Sharjah is a major commercial center of the UAE. Sharjah is perhaps, among the most traditional tourist center, due to initiative efforts by the emirate's leadership to keep its spirit within the growing modernization. In 1998, Sharjah was awarded the "Cultural Capital of the Arab World" title by UNESCO representing the United Arab Emirates.[26] Major destinations include the Sharjah Art Museum, Al Noor Mosque, Souk Al Markazi and Sharjah Heritage Area.[27] A cultural heritage project, Heart of Sharjah, has been undertaken to preserve and restore the old town of Sharjah and return it to its 1950s state.[28]
Tourism statistics
[edit]
International visitors
[edit]
Yearly tourist arrivals in millions[29]
Country
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
India
1,224,349
2,855,096
2,778,160
2,511,933
2,080,380
1,881,489
Oman
634,879
2,814,152
2,172,910
1,928,292
2,021,958
1,716,930
Saudi Arabia
512,875
1,897,471
1,993,646
1,876,316
1,921,916
1,662,435
Pakistan
418,973
840,222
819,683
763,396
767,724
671,847
United Kingdom
418,385
1,367,997
1,365,160
1,452,455
1,460,328
1,394,118
Russia
335,016
866,857
800,253
610,427
304,295
269,493
Germany
253,973
827,837
792,303
767,048
764,715
726,957
Egypt
238,226
357,084
328,049
297,658
302,560
301,952
United States
208,800
757,353
747,691
741,473
735,147
758,875
France
188,476
444,657
403,945
353,726
337,847
335,024
China
175,297
998,278
844,005
766,972
529,103
445,109
Italy
106,088
312,493
291,944
281,176
286,806
281,251
Philippines
104,438
378,423
375,938
379,754
365,749
322,297
Kuwait
98,576
378,109
399,795
463,708
492,360
489,425
Nigeria
79,630
250,568
172,476
128,676
145,725
162,086
Kazakhstan
78,072
164,219
140,801
93,968
89,723
85,625
Ukraine
73,819
154,001
123,221
83,670
77,397
70,154
Jordan
71,707
165,852
165,821
173,465
176,794
176,971
Canada
66,003
200,321
189,915
202,461
214,492
210,620
Bangladesh
63,674
158,108
132,931
31,350
31,529
39,179
Australia
63,371
297,709
305,320
331,450
353,390
389,702
Netherlands
61,432
170,484
170,018
169,829
163,662
171,496
Iraq
58,278
119,440
103,939
90,554
82,954
85,986
Spain
52,803
139,312
118,470
116,395
117,154
113,574
Bahrain
52,385
207,855
206,723
220,601
235,598
218,046
Iran
51,822
294,955
317,968
499,614
492,100
475,269
Lebanon
50,620
124,672
123,001
129,575
135,516
147,201
Indonesia
44,073
81,179
60,303
56,499
54,734
55,601
Poland
40,691
111,945
106,888
112,254
80,647
66,054
Afghanistan
39,784
75,721
44,777
34,181
28,659
51,984
South Korea
37,716
160,427
151,194
160,106
130,978
103,219
Belgium
36,619
87,110
78,870
74,983
73,775
71,379
Sweden
36,085
106,434
113,888
122,558
119,435
113,522
Romania
35,111
87,816
78,860
67,453
61,309
57,315
Brazil
34,655
105,141
85,822
78,312
54,362
59,950
Switzerland
34,111
120,623
121,675
121,399
108,782
110,785
Sri Lanka
33,539
102,200
90,455
85,474
84,013
77,295
Syria
31,972
69,876
49,979
48,270
60,212
67,943
South Africa
30,479
118,638
112,635
103,886
91,168
100,262
Turkey
29,930
86,077
87,322
97,302
97,464
94,448
Nepal
28,581
54,386
60,836
56,322
47,588
28,910
Uzbekistan
28,141
50,514
35,363
33,981
31,351
31,413
Algeria
28,120
97,693
76,211
58,397
58,356
46,767
Austria
27,630
78,751
74,857
72,779
72,587
79,293
Ireland
27,105
88,675
89,341
94,229
92,991
87,268
Japan
26,987
113,299
107,612
97,834
83,664
82,575
Uganda
24,748
60,780
49,272
41,721
35,059
30,010
Denmark
24,608
67,969
67,562
70,777
70,255
65,819
Morocco
22,537
66,526
57,229
50,818
45,708
40,170
Czech Republic
20,479
80,207
80,257
77,055
64,614
53,454
Medical tourism
[edit]
This section is an excerpt from Medical tourism § United Arab Emirates.[edit]
United Arab Emirates, especially Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah is a popular destination for medical tourism. The Dubai Health authority has been spearheading medical tourism into UAE, especially Dubai. However, hospitals providing medical tourism are spread all over the seven emirates. UAE has the distinction of having the maximum number of JCI accredited hospitals (under various heads).[30] UAE has inbound medical tourism as well as people going out for medical treatment. The inbound tourism usually is from African countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, etc. The outbound can be categorized into two segments - the local population (citizens of UAE) and the expats. The locals prefer to go to European destinations like the UK, Germany etc. The expats prefer to go back to their home countries for treatment.[citation needed]
See also
[edit]
Visa policy of the United Arab Emirates
List of museums in the United Arab Emirates
References
[edit]
^
Kamel, Deena. "UAE's travel industry set to create 23,600 new jobs this year". The National. Retrieved 2024-08-01.
^"Emirates Tourism Council reviews progress made in the achievement of UAE Tourism Strategy 2031". Ministry of Economy United Arab Emirates. 7 May 2024.
^"World Tourism Barometer" (PDF). World Tourism Organization. May 2024. p. 19. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
^"Major Tourist Attractions in the UAE". United Arab Emirates Ministry of Economy.
^Yakheek, Mahfooz (2003). "STRATEGIC VISION OF HIS HIGHNESS SHEIKH ZAYED BIN SULTAN AL NAHYAN" (PDF). apps.dtic.mil. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 28, 2021. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
^"Built in 1979, the original Metropolitan Hotel was famed for being one of Dubai's first hotels and an institution in itself". Archived from the original on 2020-09-18. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
^"Dubai Tourist Information". Archived from the original on September 22, 2019. Retrieved Sep 27, 2019.
^"Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum: The Engineer and Architect of Dubai | Reach Personnel International". Archived from the original on 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
^"Sorry, the page you requested was not found". www.zu.ac.ae. Archived from the original on November 10, 2020. Retrieved Jan 30, 2020.
^Hatemi-J, Abdulnasser (April 12, 2016). "On the tourism-led growth hypothesis in the UAE: a bootstrap approach with leveraged adjustments". Applied Economics Letters. 23 (6): 424–427. doi:10.1080/13504851.2015.1078440. S2CID 155815209 – via Taylor and Francis+NEJM.
^"Tourism contributes AED 134bn to UAE's GDP". Hotel News ME. November 23, 2016. Archived from the original on October 21, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
^"Department of Culture and Tourism". department of culture and tourism abu dhabi. Archived from the original on 2020-08-04. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
^"Ten of the best Abu Dhabi beaches | Etihad Airways Atlas magazine". Atlas by Etihad. June 6, 2018. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
^Baby, Elin P. (March 9, 2019). "Got A Reason To Party Hard! Head To Abu Dhabi Right Now!". Archived from the original on September 25, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
^Disney Is Building A New Theme Park In Abu Dhabi—Here’s What We Know
^"Dubai among most expensive cities for expat living, coffee". May 30, 2018. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
^"Dubai Nightlife". www.dubainight.com. Archived from the original on 2020-08-06. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
^"Planning for Tourism: The Case of Dubai". ResearchGate.
^"12 Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in Fujairah | PlanetWare". www.planetware.com. Archived from the original on 2020-07-29. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
^"In Fujairah, bulls fight for honour, not money or blood". gulfnews.com. Archived from the original on 2020-11-09. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
^"Geography". Visit Ras Al Khaimah. Retrieved 2024-10-16.
^"10 Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in Ras Al-Khaimah | PlanetWare". www.planetware.com. Archived from the original on 2020-09-16. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
^"Wynn Resorts granted gaming license in the UAE | AGB".
^"UAE's $7 Billion Gaming Jackpot Draws Closer With Wynn License". October 7, 2024 – via www.bloomberg.com.
^"Sharjah, the Cultural Capital of the Arab World Centro Sharjah". www.rotanatimes.com. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-06-21.
^"14 Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in Sharjah | PlanetWare". www.planetware.com. Archived from the original on 2020-09-16. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
^Morgan, James. "UAE: Heart of Sharjah on track to complete by 2025 | ConstructionWeekOnline.com". www.constructionweekonline.com. Archived from the original on 2018-12-03. Retrieved 2018-12-03.
^"Global and regional tourism performance". www.unwto.org. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
The Jumeirah Burj Al Arab (Arabic: برج العرب, lit.'Arab Tower'), commonly known as Burj Al Arab, is a luxury hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.[8] Developed and managed by Jumeirah, it is one of the tallest hotels in the world, although 39% of its total height is made up of non-occupiable space.[9][10][11] Burj Al Arab stands on an artificial island that is 280 m (920 ft) from Jumeirah Beach and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge. The shape of the structure is designed to resemble the sail of a dhow.[12] It has a helipad near the roof, at a height of 210 m (689 ft) above ground.
Site
[edit]
The beachfront area where Jumeirah Burj Al Arab and Jumeirah Beach Hotel are located was previously called Chicago Beach.[13] The hotel is located on an island of reclaimed land, 280 m (920 ft) offshore of the beach of the former Chicago Beach Hotel. The former hotel was demolished during the construction of the Burj Al Arab.[14] The locale's name had its origins in the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company, which at one time welded giant floating oil storage tanks, known locally as Kazzans, on the site.[13]
History
[edit]
The Burj Al Arab was designed by the British multidisciplinary consultancy Atkins, led by architect Tom Wright of WKA. He came up with the iconic design and signature translucent fiberglass facade that serves as a shield from the desert sun during the day and as a screen for illumination at night.[15] The design and construction were managed by Canadian engineer Rick Gregory, and construction managed by David Kirby also of WS Atkins. The Burj Al Arab's interior is by British-Chinese designer Khuan Chew. Construction of the island began in 1994 and involved up to 2,000 construction workers during peak construction. Two "wings" spread in a V to form a vast "mast", while the space between them is enclosed in a massive atrium. The setting of a high rise building on saturated soil and the novelty of the project required groundbreaking dynamic analysis and design to take into consideration soil-structure interaction, effect of water, high winds, and helipad among other loads, to help finalize the design and take the project into construction.[16][failed verification]
The hotel was built by South African construction contractor Murray & Roberts, now renamed Concor and Al Habtoor Engineering. The interior designs were led and created by Khuan Chew and John Carolan of KCA international and delivered by UAE based Depa Group.[17]
The building opened on 1 December 1999.[1] The New Year's Eve fireworks celebration originated in 2000 with the inauguration of the United Arab Emirates.
The hotel's helipad was designed by Irish architect Rebecca Gernon.[18] The helipad is at the building's 28th floor, and the helipad been used as a car race track, a boxing ring, has hosted a tennis match, and the jumping off point for the highest kite surfing jump in history.[19]
In 2017, the hotel hosted the wedding of Daniel Kinahan, head of the Kinahan Organized Crime Group.[20] The wedding was attended by several prominent drug traffickers, such as Ridouan Taghi, Edin Gačanin, 'Ricardo (El Rico) Riquelme Vega, and Raffaele Imperiale.[20]
Features
[edit]
An AgustaWestland A109E Power landing on the Burj Al Arab's helipad
Several features of the hotel required complex engineering feats to achieve. The hotel rests on an artificial island constructed 280 m (920 ft) offshore. To secure a foundation, the builders drove 230 40-metre-long (130 ft) concrete piles into the sand by drilling method.[21]
Engineers created a ground surface layer of large rocks, which is circled with a concrete honeycomb pattern, which serves to protect the foundation from erosion. It took three years to reclaim the land from the sea, while it took less than three years to construct the building itself. The building contains over 70,000 m3 (92,000 yd3) of concrete and 9,000 tons of steel.[21]
Inside the building, the atrium is 180 m (590 ft) tall.[22]
Given the height of the building, the Burj Al Arab is the world's fifth tallest hotel after Gevora Hotel, JW Marriott Marquis Dubai, Four Seasons Place Kuala Lumpur and Rose and Rayhaan by Rotana. But if buildings with mixed use were stripped off the list, the Burj Al Arab would be the world's third tallest hotel. The structure of the Rose Rayhaan, also in Dubai, is 333 metres (1,093 ft) tall,[23] 12 m (39 ft) taller than the Burj Al Arab, which is 321 metres (1,053 ft) tall.[23]The Burj Al Arab's helipad, located 210 meters above ground, has been the site of several high-profile events, including a tennis match between Roger Federer and Andre Agassi, and stunts by Red Bull athletes.[citation needed]
Rooms and suites
[edit]
The hotel is managed by the Jumeirah Group. The hotel has 199 exclusive suites each allocated eight dedicated staff members and a 24-hour butler service.[24] The smallest suite occupies an area of 169 m2 (1,820 sq ft), the largest covers 780 m2 (8,400 sq ft).[25]
The Royal Suite, billed at US$24,000 per night, is listed at number 12 on World's 15 most expensive hotel suites compiled by CNN Go in 2012.[26]
The Burj Al Arab is very popular with the Chinese market, which made up 25 percent of all bookings at the hotel in 2011 and 2012.[27]
Restaurants
[edit]
Al MuntahaAl Mahara
There are six restaurants in the hotel, including:
Al Muntaha ("The Ultimate"), is located 200 m (660 ft) above the Persian Gulf, offering a view of Dubai. It is supported by a full cantilever that extends 27 m (89 ft) from either side of the mast, and is accessed by a panoramic elevator.[citation needed]
Al Mahara ("Oyster"), which is accessed via a simulated submarine voyage, features a large seawater aquarium, holding roughly 990,000 L (260,000 US gal) of water. The wall of the tank, made of acrylic glass in order to withstand the water pressure, is about 18 cm (7.1 in) thick.[citation needed]
Rating
[edit]
While the hotel has sometimes been described as "the world's only 'seven-star' hotel", the hotel management claims never to have done so themselves. The term appeared due to a British journalist who had visited the hotel on a tour before it was officially opened. The journalist described Burj al Arab as "more than anything she has ever seen" and therefore referred to it as a seven-star hotel.[28] A Jumeirah Group spokesperson said "There's not a lot we can do to stop it. We're not encouraging the use of the term. We've never used it in our advertising."[29]
Reception
[edit]
Burj Al Arab has attracted criticism as "a contradiction of sorts, considering how well-designed and impressive the construction ultimately proves to be."[25] The contradiction here seems to be related to the hotel's decor. "This extraordinary investment in state-of-the-art construction technology stretches the limits of the ambitious urban imagination in an exercise that is largely due to the power of excessive wealth." Another critic includes negative critiques for the city of Dubai as well: "both the hotel and the city, after all, are monuments to the triumph of money over practicality. Both elevate style over substance."[25] Yet another: "Emulating the quality of palatial interiors, in an expression of wealth for the mainstream, a theater of opulence is created in Burj Al Arab ... The result is a baroque effect".[25]
In popular culture
[edit]
The last chapter of the espionage novel Performance Anomalies[30][31] takes place at the top of the Burj Al Arab,[32] where the spy protagonist Cono 7Q discovers that through deadly betrayal his spy nemesis Katerina has maneuvered herself into the top echelon of the government of Kazakhstan. The hotel can also be seen in Syriana and also some Bollywood movies.[which?]
Richard Hammond included the building in his television series Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections.
The Jumeirah Burj Al Arab serves as the cover image for the 2009 album Ocean Eyes by Owl City.
The Burj Al Arab was the site of the last task of the fifth episode of the first season of the Chinese edition of The Amazing Race, where teams had to clean up a room to the hotel's standards.[33][34]
The building is featured in Matthew Reilly's novel The Six Sacred Stones, where a kamikaze pilot crashes a plane into the hotel, destroying it in an attempt to kill the protagonist, Jack West Jr.
The building was the location of the main challenge of the ninth episode of the Canadian-American animated television series Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race,[35] where contestants were tasked to either return a serve from a tennis robot on the hotel's helipad, or squeegee an entire column of the hotel's windows.
See also
[edit]
Hotels portal
W Barcelona (Hotel Vela) – skyscraper of similar appearance in Barcelona, Spain (sail)
Oman TiT – residential skyscraper of similar appearance in Taipei, Taiwan (sail)
Elite Plaza – a similar-shaped skyscraper in Yerevan, Armenia
JW Marriott Panama (Panama City) – similar structure
Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth – similar structure in Portsmouth, UK
Vasco da Gama Tower – a skyscraper of similar appearance in Lisbon, Portugal (sail)
Sail Tower – a skyscraper of similar appearance in Haifa, Israel (sail)
List of tallest buildings in the United Arab Emirates
List of buildings in Dubai
List of tallest buildings in Dubai
References
[edit]
^ ab
"Media Fact File of Burj Al Arab" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 August 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
^Swibel, Matthew (15 March 2014). "Forbes.com: Arabian Knight". www.forbes.com. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
^ abcd"Burj Al Arab Hotel – The Skyscraper Center". Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
^"Emporis building ID 107803". Emporis. Archived from the original on 15 February 2020.
^"Burj Al Arab". SkyscraperPage.
^Burj Al Arab at Structurae
^"Stay at Burj Al Arab". Jumeirah. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
^Eytan, Declan. "Milan: Inside the World's Only Certified 7 Star Hotel". Forbes. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
^"Vanity Height: the Use-less Space in Today's Tallest". CTBUH. Archived from the original on 17 November 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
^"Study: Skyscrapers Topped by Wasted Space". World Property Channel. 6 September 2013. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
^Solon, Olivia (6 September 2013). "Report names and shames vanity skyscrapers with unnecessary spires". Wired. Archived from the original on 15 November 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
^"Burj Al Arab". www.atkinsglobal.com. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
^ abKrane, Jim City of Mud: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism, page 103, St. Martin's Press (15 September 2009)
^"Dubai's Chicago Beach Hotel". Dubai As It Used To Be. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
^Chalhoub, Michel Soto (1993). "Structural Design and Deep Foundation Soil-Structure Interaction of Burj-Al-Arab - A Comparison of Two Alternatives". Parsons Engineering.
^Pantin, Travis (17 February 2009). "Depa announces strong growth". The National. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
^"From the inside out". Construction Week Online Middle East. March 2011.
^"Global Gateway". CNN. 1 July 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
^ abCaesar, Ed (20 October 2025). "The Cocaine Kingpin Living Large in Dubai". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X.
^ ab"Burj Al Arab". EgyptEng.com engineering directory. 2000. Archived from the original on 17 January 2007. Retrieved 24 January 2007.
^"VIDEO: Burj Al Arab's 15th anniversary 'dream'". HotelierME. 28 November 2014.
^ ab"The world's 17 tallest hotels – for the ultimate room with a view". The Telegraph. 11 February 2016. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
^"Burj Al Arab". www.jumeirah.com. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
^ abcdDamluji, Salma Samar, The Architecture of the U.A.E.. Reading, UK: 2006.
^Arnold, Helen "World's 15 most expensive hotel suites" Archived 2 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine CNN Go. 25 March 2012. Retrieved 11 April 2012
^"Jumeirah gets ravenous for China". TTGmice. Archived from the original on 5 June 2013. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
^Parr, Christopher. "Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, Dubai: Inside The 7 Star Luxury Hotel". Business Insider. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
^Bundhun, Rebecca (14 July 2009). "Hotel star ratings standards long overdue". The National. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
^"Performance Anomalies". Goodreads. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
^Lee, Victor Robert (20 December 2012). Performance Anomalies. USA: Perimeter Six. ISBN 978-1-938409-22-6.
^Lee, Victor Robert (15 January 2013). Performance Anomalies: A Novel. Perimeter Six Press. p. 327. ISBN 978-1-938409-20-2.
^"Burj Al Arab hotel stars in Chinese reality TV show". Arabian Business. 18 November 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
^"卓美亚集团与「极速前进」首次合作" [Jumeirah Group collaborates with The Amazing Race for the first time]. Neeu (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 27 July 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
^"Press Release". corusent.com. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
Further reading
[edit]
Rose, Steve (28 November 2005). "Architecture: Sand and freedom". The Guardian.
External links
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Burj Al Arab (category)
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About Helicopter
Type of rotorcraft
For other uses, see Helicopter (disambiguation).
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Helicopter" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR(August 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
A Bell 206 helicopter operated by the Los Angeles Police Department Air Support DivisionCabin view looking out from a helicopter in flightBell 412CF looking forward from the tail, showing its twin turbine engine exhausts1956 Hiller YROE-1 one-man "Rotorcycle" being tested at NASA Ames Research Center
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally.[1] These attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft and many forms of short take-off and landing (STOL) or short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft cannot perform without a runway.
The Focke-Wulf Fw 61 was the first successful, practical, and fully controllable helicopter in 1936, while in 1942, the Sikorsky R-4 became the first helicopter to reach full-scale production. Starting in 1939 and through 1943, Igor Sikorsky worked on the development of the VS-300, which over four iterations, became the basis for modern helicopters with a single main rotor and a single tail rotor.
Although most earlier designs used more than one main rotor, the configuration of a single main rotor accompanied by a vertical anti-torque tail rotor (i.e. unicopter, not to be confused with the single-blade monocopter) has become the most common helicopter configuration. However, twin-rotor helicopters (bicopters), in either tandem or transverse rotors configurations, are sometimes in use due to their greater payload capacity than the monorotor design, and coaxial-rotor, tiltrotor and compound helicopters are also all flying today. Four-rotor helicopters (quadcopters) were pioneered as early as 1907 in France, and along with other types of multicopters, have been developed mainly for specialized applications such as commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) due to the rapid expansion of drone racing and aerial photography markets in the early 21st century, as well as recently weaponized utilities such as artillery spotting, aerial bombing and suicide attacks.
Etymology
[edit]
The English word helicopter is adapted from the French word hélicoptère, coined by Gustave Ponton d'Amécourt in 1861, which originates from the Greek helix (ἕλιξ), genitivehelikos (ἕλῐκος), "helix, spiral, whirl, convolution"[2] and pteron (πτερόν) "wing".[3][4] In a process of rebracketing, the word is often (erroneously, from an etymological point of view) perceived by English speakers as consisting of heli- and -copter, leading to words like helipad and quadcopter.[5][6] English language nicknames for "helicopter" include "chopper", "copter", "heli", and "whirlybird". In the United States military, the common slang is "helo" pronounced /ˈhiː.loʊ/.
Design
[edit]
Main and anti-torque rotors
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more horizontally-spinning rotors.[7] By contrast the autogyro (or gyroplane) and gyrodyne have a free-spinning rotor for all or part of the flight envelope, relying on a separate thrust system to propel the craft forwards, so that the airflow sets the rotor spinning to provide lift. The compound helicopter also has a separate thrust system, but continues to supply power to the rotor throughout normal flight.[citation needed] U.S. federal regulations state that "helicopter" means a rotorcraft that, for its horizontal motion, depends principally on its engine-driven rotors.[8]
Rotor system
[edit]
Main article: Helicopter rotor
The rotor system, or more simply rotor, is the rotating part of a helicopter that generates lift. A rotor system may be mounted horizontally, as main rotors are, providing lift vertically, or it may be mounted vertically, such as a tail rotor, to provide horizontal thrust to counteract torque from the main rotors. The rotor consists of a mast, hub and rotor blades.[citation needed]
The mast is a cylindrical metal shaft that extends upwards from the transmission. At the top of the mast is the attachment point for the rotor blades called the hub. Main rotor systems are classified according to how the rotor blades are attached and move relative to the hub. There are three basic types: hingeless, fully articulated, and teetering; although some modern rotor systems use a combination of these.[citation needed]
Anti-torque
[edit]
Further information: Tail rotor
Sikorsky's V-300, 1937
Most helicopters have a single main rotor, but torque created by its aerodynamic drag must be countered by an opposed torque. The design that Igor Sikorsky settled on for his VS-300 was a smaller tail rotor. The tail rotor pushes or pulls against the tail to counter the torque effect, and this has become the most common configuration for helicopter design, usually at the end of a tail boom.[citation needed]
Some helicopters use other anti-torque controls instead of the tail rotor, such as the ducted fan (called Fenestron or FANTAIL) and NOTAR. NOTAR provides anti-torque similar to the way a wing develops lift through the use of the Coandă effect on the tail boom.[9]
MD 520N NOTAR
The use of two or more horizontal rotors turning in opposite directions is another configuration used to counteract the effects of torque on the aircraft without relying on an anti-torque tail rotor. This allows the power normally required to be diverted for the tail rotor to be applied fully to the main rotors, increasing the aircraft's power efficiency and lifting capacity. There are several common configurations that use the counter-rotating effect to benefit the rotorcraft:
Tandem rotors are two counter-rotating rotors with one mounted behind the other.[10]
Transverse rotors are pair of counter-rotating rotors transversely mounted at the ends of fixed wings or outrigger structures. Now used on tiltrotors, some early model helicopters had used them.
Coaxial rotors are two counter-rotating rotors mounted one above the other with the same axis.
Intermeshing rotors are two counter-rotating rotors mounted close to each other at a sufficient angle to let the rotors intermesh over the top of the aircraft without colliding. An aircraft utilizing this is known as a synchropter.
Multirotors make use of three or more rotors. Specific terms are also used depending on the exact amount of rotors, such as tricopter, quadcopter, hexacopter and octocopter for three rotors, four rotors, six rotors and eight rotors respectively, of which quadcopter is the most common. Multirotors are primarily used on drones and use on aircraft with a human pilot is rare.[citation needed]
Tip jet designs let the rotor push itself through the air and avoid generating torque.[11]
Engines
[edit]
Main articles: Aircraft engine and Turboshaft
H-34 with a radial piston engine in the noseTurbine engine of a CH-53 Sea Stallion
The number, size and type of engine(s) used on a helicopter determines the size, function and capability of that helicopter design. The earliest helicopter engines were simple mechanical devices, such as rubber bands or spindles, which relegated the size of helicopters to toys and small models. For a half century before the first airplane flight, steam engines were used to forward the development of the understanding of helicopter aerodynamics, but the limited power did not allow for manned flight. The introduction of the internal combustion engine at the end of the 19th century became the watershed for helicopter development as engines began to be developed and produced that were powerful enough to allow for helicopters able to lift humans.[citation needed]
Early helicopter designs utilized custom-built engines or rotary engines designed for airplanes, but these were soon replaced by more powerful automobile engines and radial engines. The single, most-limiting factor of helicopter development during the first half of the 20th century was that the amount of power produced by an engine was not able to overcome the engine's weight in vertical flight. This was overcome in early successful helicopters by using the smallest engines available. When the compact, flat engine was developed, the helicopter industry found a lighter-weight powerplant easily adapted to small helicopters, although radial engines continued to be used for larger helicopters.[citation needed]
Turbine engines revolutionized the aviation industry; and the turboshaft engine for helicopter use, pioneered in December 1951 by the aforementioned Kaman K-225, finally gave helicopters an engine with a large amount of power and a low weight penalty. Turboshafts are also more reliable than piston engines, especially when producing the sustained high levels of power required by a helicopter. The turboshaft engine was able to be scaled to the size of the helicopter being designed, so that all but the lightest of helicopter models are powered by turbine engines today.[citation needed]
Special jet engines developed to drive the rotor from the rotor tips are referred to as tip jets. Tip jets powered by a remote compressor are referred to as cold tip jets, while those powered by combustion exhaust are referred to as hot tip jets. An example of a cold jet helicopter is the Sud-Ouest Djinn, and an example of the hot tip jet helicopter is the YH-32 Hornet.[citation needed]
Some radio-controlled helicopters and smaller, helicopter-type unmanned aerial vehicles, use electric motors or motorcycle engines.[12] Radio-controlled helicopters may also have piston engines that use fuels other than gasoline, such as nitromethane. Some turbine engines commonly used in helicopters can also use biodiesel instead of jet fuel.[13][14]
There are also human-powered helicopters.
Transmission
[edit]
The transmission is a mechanical system that transmits power from the engine(s) to the rotors. The transmission is a system of gears, bearings, clutches and shafts that performs several functions (1) Translates the alignment of the drive shaft to match the alignment of the rotor shafts; (2) Reduces the RPM of the drive shaft to the lower RPMs of the rotors; and (3) Enables the engine to engage or disengage from the rotors. For helicopters with tail rotors, the transmission drivetrain forks into two paths: one leading to the main rotor, and one leading to the tail rotor.[15]: 4-10 to 4-13 [16][17]
The drive shafts of helicopter engines are typically not aligned with the rotor shafts, so the transmission must translate the alignment of the drive shaft to match the shafts of the rotors. Many engine drive shafts are aligned horizontally, yet the main rotor shaft ("mast") is usually vertical, and the tail rotor shaft is often perpendicular to the engine's drive shaft. The transmission contains a series of gears, usually bevel gears, that translate the alignment of the drive shaft to the alignment of the rotor shafts.[15]: 4–12 [18]
The transmission also reduces the RPMs of the engine to the lower RPMs required by the rotors. The output drive shaft of the engine, before any gearing is applied, is typically between 3,000 and 50,000 RPM (turbine engines typically have higher RPM than piston engines). The main rotor typically rotates between 300 and 600 RPM. The tail rotor, if present, usually rotates between 1,000 and 5,000 RPM. (The RPMs of a given model of helicopter are usually fixed — the RPM ranges listed above represent a variety of helicopter models).[19] The transmission contains a series of reduction gears to reduce the engine RPM to the rotor RPMs. Several types of reduction gears may be used, including bevel gears, planetary gears, helical gears, and spur gears. Most transmissions contain several reduction gears: the engine itself may contain reduction gears (often spur gears) between the engine's internal shaft and the output drive shaft; the main rotor may have a reduction gear at its base (typically a planetary gear); and there may be reduction gears at the tail rotor, and on the shaft leading to the tail rotor.[15]: 4–11
The transmission often includes one or more clutches, which permit the rotors to engage or disengage from the engine. A clutch is required so the engine can start up and gain speed before taking the load of the rotors. A clutch is also required in the case of engine failure: in that situation, the rotors must disengage from the engine so that the rotors can continue spinning and perform autorotation. Helicopter clutches are usually freewheel clutches relying on centrifugal forces (sprag clutchs are commonly used), but belt drive clutches are also used.[15]: 4–7, 4-12 to 4-13
Flight controls
[edit]
Main article: Helicopter flight controls
Controls from a Bell 206
A helicopter has four flight control inputs. These are the cyclic, the collective, the anti-torque foot pedals, and the throttle.
The cyclic control is usually located between the pilot's legs and is commonly called the cyclic stick or just cyclic or stick and moves forwards and backwards and side to side. On most helicopters, the cyclic is similar to a joystick. However, the Robinson R22, Robinson R44 and Robinson R66 have a unique teetering-bar cyclic control system and a few helicopters have a cyclic control that descends into the cockpit from overhead.[citation needed]
The cyclic is called the cyclic because it cyclically changes the pitch of the main rotor blades. In a forward flight state, as the blades rotate, the blade rotating forward will see higher speed and a corresponding increase in lift compared to the retreating blade. As such, the angle of attack of the forward rotating blade has to be lower than the retreating blade or the helicopter will roll to the retreating blade side. This happens cyclically as the blades rotate through a complete rotation leading to the naming of this control as the cyclic. The cyclic controls this differential angle.
The cyclic controls the tilt of the rotor. In hover, the cyclic controls motion of the helicopter over the ground. In flight, the cyclic controls the pitch and roll of the helicopter.
In a hover, if the pilot pushes the cyclic forward, the rotor disk tilts forward, and the rotor produces a thrust in the forward direction. If the pilot pushes the cyclic to the side, the rotor disk tilts to that side and produces thrust in that direction, causing the helicopter to move sideways.[citation needed]
Because of precession, the cyclic moves the swashplate 90 degrees before the desired main rotor tilt. This can be seen when the rotor is stopped. With the blades aligned fore/aft, moving the cyclic forward does not change the blade angle but moving the cyclic to the side will change the blade angle.
In flight, the cyclic acts like the stick in an airplane. Moving the cyclic forward pitches the nose down for more speed. Moving the cyclic aft lifts the nose to slow the aircraft. Moving the cyclic to the side rolls the helicopter in that direction which generally leads to turning in that direction, assuming coordinated flight.
The collective pitch control or collective is located on the left side of the pilot's seat with an adjustable friction control to prevent inadvertent movement freeing the pilot's left hand for other uses. The collective changes the pitch angle of all the main rotor blades collectively (i.e. all at the same time) and independently of their rotational position. Therefore, if an up collective input is made, all the blades increase angle of attack equally, and the result is additional lift (power) to the main rotor system which can increase helicopter speed or altitude.[citation needed] Lowering the collective results in less lift from the main rotor system.
A swashplate controls the collective and cyclic pitch of the main blades. The swashplate moves up and down, along the main shaft, to change the pitch of the blades. The stick is connected to the swash plate through the collective and cyclic systems allowing both systems to independently control the angle of the blades.
The anti-torque pedals are located in the same position as the rudder pedals in a fixed-wing aircraft, and serve a similar purpose, namely to control the yaw or direction in which the nose of the aircraft is pointed. Application of the pedal in a given direction changes the pitch of the tail rotor blades, increasing or reducing the thrust produced by the tail rotor and causing the nose to yaw in the direction of the applied pedal. The pedals mechanically change the pitch of the tail rotor altering the amount of thrust produced.[citation needed] Helicopters do not exhibit adverse yaw as seen in airplanes and the pedals are not generally required when turning in forward flight. Use of the pedals is closely related to the collective in hover. For example, increasing collective increases aerodynamic drag on the main rotor system causing a yaw of the helicopter. The pedals are used to counter that yaw.
Both the cyclic and collective can have a wide variety of toggles and switches available to the pilot to control such things as aerodynamic trim, engine speed trim, radio and intercom, hook release, water release, etc. This allows the pilot to control these functions without removing their hands from the controls.
Helicopter rotors are designed to operate in a narrow range of RPM.[20][21][22][23][19] The throttle controls the power produced by the engine, which is connected to the rotor by a fixed ratio transmission. The purpose of the throttle is to maintain enough engine power to keep the rotor RPM within allowable limits so that the rotor produces enough lift for flight. The throttle control is a motorcycle-style twist grip mounted on the collective control.
Compound helicopter
[edit]
The NH-3A was experimental version of the Sea King with wings and jets.
A compound helicopter has an additional system for thrust and, typically, small stub fixed wings. This offloads the rotor in cruise, which allows its rotation to be slowed down, thus increasing the maximum speed of the aircraft. The Lockheed AH-56A Cheyenne diverted up to 90% of its engine power to a pusher propeller during forward flight.[24]
Flight
[edit]
There are three basic flight conditions for a helicopter: hover, forward flight and the transition between the two.
Hover
[edit]
An HH-65 Dolphin holding a hover while conducting rescue hoist training
Hovering is the most challenging part of flying a helicopter. Required are constant control inputs and corrections by the pilot to keep the helicopter where it is required to be.[25] Despite the complexity of the task, the control inputs in a hover are simple. The cyclic is used to eliminate drift in the horizontal plane, that is to control forward and back, right and left. The collective is used to maintain altitude. The pedals are used to control nose direction or heading. It is the interaction of these controls that makes hovering so difficult, since an adjustment in any one control requires an adjustment of the other two, creating a cycle of constant correction.[citation needed] In addition, the center of lift of the main rotor system is significantly above the center of gravity (CG) of the helicopter. Thus, any lateral perturbation of the helicopter in a hover will tend to increase as the rotor lift will increasingly roll or pitch the helicopter in a positive-feedback rotor-lift versus helicopter CG situation. The lateral motion of the helicopter lags behind the roll induced by the rotor lift side vector which will lead an inexperienced pilot into a pilot induced oscillation (PIO) and eventual loss of control.
Transition from hover to forward flight
[edit]
A hovering helicopter is surrounded by a vortex of air pushing the helicopter down. This can be a hover in ground effect or out of ground effect. Thus, when in a hover, the engine needs to provide enough power to both counter helicopter weight as well as counter this downward flow of air into the rotor system. As a helicopter moves from hover to forward flight it flies out of this downward flowing vortex and enters a state called translational lift which provides extra lift without increasing power. This state, most typically, occurs when the airspeed reaches approximately 16–24 knots (30–44 km/h; 18–28 mph), and may be necessary for a helicopter to obtain flight.[citation needed] A maneuver called a running take off involves sliding the helicopter on the ground at increasing speed until sufficient lift is achieved for flight.
Forward flight
[edit]
In forward flight a helicopter's flight controls behave more like those of a fixed-wing aircraft. Applying forward pressure on the cyclic will cause the nose to pitch down, with a resultant increase in airspeed and loss of altitude. Aft cyclic will cause the nose to pitch up, slowing the helicopter and causing it to climb. Increasing collective (power) while maintaining a constant airspeed will induce a climb while decreasing collective will cause a descent. Coordinating these two inputs, down collective plus aft cyclic or up collective plus forward cyclic, will result in airspeed changes while maintaining a constant altitude. Helicopters do not exhibit adverse yaw and the pedals are not generally needed for forward flight, even when turning.
Autorotation
[edit]
If the engine fails or is disconnected from the rotor system, the helicopter will enter an autorotation, where the helicopter's main rotor turns due to air moving up through the rotor, instead of engine power driving the rotor.
Uses
[edit]
A Bell 205 dropping water onto a fire
Due to the operating characteristics of the helicopter—its ability to take off and land vertically, and to hover for extended periods of time, as well as the aircraft's handling properties under low airspeed conditions—it has proved advantageous to conduct tasks that were previously not possible with other aircraft, or were time- or work-intensive to accomplish on the ground. Today, helicopter uses include transportation of people and cargo, military uses, construction, firefighting, search and rescue, tourism, medical transport, law enforcement, agriculture, news and media, and aerial observation, among others.[26]
KPRC's Bell 206 providing aerial news coverage
A helicopter used to carry loads connected to long cables or slings is called an aerial crane. Aerial cranes are used to place heavy equipment, like radio transmission towers and large air conditioning units, on the tops of tall buildings, or when an item must be raised up in a remote area, such as a radio tower raised on the top of a hill or mountain. Helicopters are used as aerial cranes in the logging industry to lift trees out of terrain where vehicles cannot travel and where environmental concerns prohibit the building of roads.[27] These operations are referred to as longline because of the long, single sling line used to carry the load.[28] In military service helicopters are often useful for delivery of outsized slung loads that would not fit inside ordinary cargo aircraft: artillery pieces, large machinery (field radars, communications gear, electrical generators), or pallets of bulk cargo. In military operations these payloads are often delivered to remote locations made inaccessible by mountainous or riverine terrain, or naval vessels at sea.[citation needed]
Soldiers await pickup from CH-47 helicopters
In electronic news gathering, helicopters have provided aerial views of some major news stories, and have been doing so, from the late 1960s. Helicopters have also been used in films, both in front and behind the camera.[29]
The largest single non-combat helicopter operation in history was the disaster management operation following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Hundreds of pilots were involved in airdrop and observation missions, making dozens of sorties a day for several months.[citation needed]
Chinook interior with passengers in seats
"Helitack" is the use of helicopters to combat wildland fires.[30] The helicopters are used for aerial firefighting (water bombing) and may be fitted with tanks or carry helibuckets. Helibuckets, such as the Bambi bucket, are usually filled by submerging the bucket into lakes, rivers, reservoirs, or portable tanks. Tanks fitted onto helicopters are filled from a hose while the helicopter is on the ground or water is siphoned from lakes or reservoirs through a hanging snorkel as the helicopter hovers over the water source. Helitack helicopters are also used to deliver firefighters, who rappel down to inaccessible areas, and to resupply firefighters. Common firefighting helicopters include variants of the Bell 205 and the Erickson S-64 Aircrane helitanker.[citation needed]
Exercises with a helicopter to rescue someone in water
Helicopters are used as air ambulances for emergency medical assistance in situations when an ambulance cannot easily or quickly reach the scene, or cannot transport the patient to a medical facility in time. Helicopters are also used when patients need to be transported between medical facilities and air transportation is the most practical method. An air ambulance helicopter is equipped to stabilize and provide limited medical treatment to a patient while in flight. The use of helicopters as air ambulances is often referred to as "MEDEVAC", and patients are referred to as being "airlifted", or "medevaced". This use was pioneered in the Korean War, when time to reach a medical facility was reduced to three hours from the eight hours needed in World War II, and further reduced to two hours by the Vietnam War.[31] In naval service a prime function of rescue helicopters is to promptly retrieve downed aircrew involved in crashes occurring upon launch or recovery aboard aircraft carriers. In past years this function was performed by destroyers escorting the carrier, but since then helicopters have proved vastly more effective.[citation needed]
Police departments and other law enforcement agencies use helicopters to pursue suspects and patrol the skies. Since helicopters can achieve a unique aerial view, they are often used in conjunction with police on the ground to report on suspects' locations and movements. They are often mounted with lighting and heat-sensing equipment for night pursuits.
The Mil-24 'Hind' is a well-known military attack helicopter
Military forces use attack helicopters to conduct aerial attacks on ground targets. Such helicopters are mounted with missile launchers and miniguns. Transport helicopters are used to ferry troops and supplies where the lack of an airstrip would make transport via fixed-wing aircraft impossible. The use of transport helicopters to deliver troops as an attack force on an objective is referred to as "air assault". Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) helicopter systems of varying sizes are developed by companies for military reconnaissance and surveillance duties. Naval forces also use helicopters equipped with dipping sonar for anti-submarine warfare, since they can operate from small ships.[citation needed]
Oil companies charter helicopters to move workers and parts quickly to remote drilling sites located at sea or in remote locations. The speed advantage over boats makes the high operating cost of helicopters cost-effective in ensuring that oil platforms continue to operate. Various companies specialize in this type of operation.[citation needed]
NASA developed Ingenuity, a 1.8 kg (4.0 lb) helicopter used to survey Mars (along with a rover). It began service in February 2021 and was retired due to sustained rotor blade damage in January 2024 after 73 sorties. As the Martian atmosphere is 100 times thinner than Earth's, its two blades spin at close to 3,000 revolutions a minute, approximately 10 times faster than that of a terrestrial helicopter.[32]
Market
[edit]
Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron HS-12 "Wyverns" flying SH-3H Sea Kings in formation, 1985. Military helicopters are a significant part of the helicopter market
In 2017, 926 civil helicopters were shipped for $3.68 billion, led by Airbus Helicopters with $1.87 billion for 369 rotorcraft, Leonardo Helicopters with $806 million for 102 (first three-quarters only), Bell Helicopter with $696 million for 132, then Robinson Helicopter with $161 million for 305.[33]
By October 2018, the in-service and stored helicopter fleet of 38,570 with civil or government operators was led by Robinson Helicopter with 24.7% followed by Airbus Helicopters with 24.4%, then Bell with 20.5 and Leonardo with 8.4%, Russian Helicopters with 7.7%, Sikorsky Aircraft with 7.2%, MD Helicopters with 3.4% and other with 2.2%. The most widespread model is the piston Robinson R44 with 5,600, then the H125/AS350 with 3,600 units, followed by the Bell 206 with 3,400. Most were in North America with 34.3% then in Europe with 28.0% followed by Asia-Pacific with 18.6%, Latin America with 11.6%, Africa with 5.3% and Middle East with 1.7%.[34]
History
[edit]
Early design
[edit]
See also: Bamboo-copter, Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci, and Leonardo's aerial screw
Leonardo's "aerial screw"
The earliest references for vertical flight came from China. Since around 400 BC,[35] Chinese children have played with bamboo flying toys (or Chinese top).[36][37][38] This bamboo-copter is spun by rolling a stick attached to a rotor. The spinning creates lift, and the toy flies when released.[35] The 4th-century AD Daoist book Baopuzi by Ge Hong (抱朴子 "Master who Embraces Simplicity") reportedly describes some of the ideas inherent to rotary wing aircraft.[39]
Designs similar to the Chinese helicopter toy appeared in some Renaissance paintings and other works.[40] In the 18th and early 19th centuries Western scientists developed flying machines based on the Chinese toy.[41]
It was not until the early 1480s, when Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci created a design for a machine that could be described as an "aerial screw", that any recorded advancement was made towards vertical flight. His notes suggested that he built small flying models, but there were no indications for any provision to stop the rotor from making the craft rotate.[42][43] As scientific knowledge increased and became more accepted, people continued to pursue the idea of vertical flight.[citation needed]
In July 1754, Russian Mikhail Lomonosov had developed a small coaxial modeled after the Chinese top but powered by a wound-up spring device[41] and demonstrated it to the Russian Academy of Sciences. It was powered by a spring, and was suggested as a method to lift meteorological instruments. In 1783, Christian de Launoy, and his mechanic, Bienvenu, used a coaxial version of the Chinese top in a model consisting of contrarotating turkey flight feathers[41] as rotor blades, and in 1784, demonstrated it to the French Academy of Sciences. Sir George Cayley, influenced by a childhood fascination with the Chinese flying top, developed a model of feathers, similar to that of Launoy and Bienvenu, but powered by rubber bands. By the end of the century, he had progressed to using sheets of tin for rotor blades and springs for power. His writings on his experiments and models would become influential on future aviation pioneers.[42] Alphonse Pénaud would later develop coaxial rotor model helicopter toys in 1870, also powered by rubber bands. One of these toys, given as a gift by their father, would inspire the Wright brothers to pursue the dream of flight.[44]
Experimental helicopter by Enrico Forlanini (1877), exposed at the Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, Italy
In 1861, the word "helicopter" was coined by Gustave de Ponton d'Amécourt, a French inventor who demonstrated a small steam-powered model. While celebrated as an innovative use of a new metal, aluminum, the model never lifted off the ground. D'Amecourt's linguistic contribution would survive to eventually describe the vertical flight he had envisioned. Steam power was popular with other inventors as well. In 1877, the Italian engineer, inventor and aeronautical pioneer Enrico Forlanini developed an unmanned helicopter powered by a steam engine. It rose to a height of 13 meters (43 feet), where it remained for 20 seconds, after a vertical take-off from a park in Milan.[45] Milan has dedicated its city airport to Enrico Forlanini, also named Linate Airport,[46] as well as the nearby park, the Parco Forlanini.[47] Emmanuel Dieuaide's steam-powered design featured counter-rotating rotors powered through a hose from a boiler on the ground.[42] In 1887 Parisian inventor, Gustave Trouvé, built and flew a tethered electric model helicopter.[citation needed]
In July 1901, the maiden flight of Hermann Ganswindt's helicopter took place in Berlin-Schöneberg; this was probably the first heavier-than-air motor-driven flight carrying humans. A movie covering the event was taken by Max Skladanowsky, but it remains lost.[48]
In 1885, Thomas Edison was given US$1,000 (equivalent to $35,000 today) by James Gordon Bennett, Jr., to conduct experiments towards developing flight. Edison built a helicopter and used the paper for a stock ticker to create guncotton, with which he attempted to power an internal combustion engine. The helicopter was damaged by explosions and one of his workers was badly burned. Edison reported that it would take a motor with a ratio of three to four pounds per horsepower produced to be successful, based on his experiments.[49] Ján Bahýľ, a Slovak inventor, adapted the internal combustion engine to power his helicopter model that reached a height of 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) in 1901. On 5 May 1905, his helicopter reached 4 meters (13 feet) in altitude and flew for over 1,500 meters (4,900 feet).[50] In 1908, Edison patented his own design for a helicopter powered by a gasoline engine with box kites attached to a mast by cables for a rotor,[51] but it never flew.[52]
First flights
[edit]
In 1906, two French brothers, Jacques and Louis Breguet, began experimenting with airfoils for helicopters. In 1907, those experiments resulted in the Gyroplane No.1, possibly as the earliest known example of a quadcopter. Although there is some uncertainty about the date, sometime between 14 August and 29 September 1907, the Gyroplane No. 1 lifted its pilot into the air about 0.6 metres (2 ft) for a minute.[53][54] The Gyroplane No.1 proved to be extremely unsteady and required a man at each corner of the airframe to hold it steady. For this reason, the flights of the Gyroplane No.1 are considered to be the first manned flight of a helicopter, but not a free or untethered flight.[citation needed]
Paul Cornu's helicopter, 1907
That same year, fellow French inventor Paul Cornu designed and built the Cornu helicopter which used two 6.1-metre (20 ft) counter-rotating rotors driven by a 24 hp (18 kW) Antoinette engine. On 13 November 1907, it lifted its inventor to 0.3 metres (1 ft) and remained aloft for 20 seconds. Even though this flight did not surpass the flight of the Gyroplane No. 1, it was reported to be the first truly free flight with a pilot.[n 1] Cornu's helicopter completed a few more flights and achieved a height of nearly 2.0 metres (6.5 ft), but it proved to be unstable and was abandoned.[53]
In 1909, J. Newton Williams of Derby, Connecticut, and Emile Berliner of Washington, D.C., flew a helicopter "on three occasions" at Berliner's lab in Washington's Brightwood neighborhood.[55]
In 1911, Slovenian philosopher and economist Ivan Slokar patented a helicopter configuration.[56][57][58]
The Danish inventor Jacob Ellehammer built the Ellehammer helicopter in 1912. It consisted of a frame equipped with two counter-rotating discs, each of which was fitted with six vanes around its circumference. After indoor tests, the aircraft was demonstrated outdoors and made several free take-offs. Experiments with the helicopter continued until September 1916, when it tipped over during take-off, destroying its rotors.[59]
During World War I, Austria-Hungary developed the PKZ, an experimental helicopter prototype, with two aircraft built.[citation needed]
Early development
[edit]
Silent film of a test flight of Pescara's helicopter, 1922. EYE Film Institute Netherlands.
In the early 1920s, Argentine Raúl Pateras-Pescara de Castelluccio, while working in Europe, demonstrated one of the first successful applications of cyclic pitch.[53] Coaxial, contra-rotating, biplane rotors could be warped to cyclically increase and decrease the lift they produced. The rotor hub could also be tilted forward a few degrees, allowing the aircraft to move forward without a separate propeller to push or pull it. Pateras-Pescara was also able to demonstrate the principle of autorotation. By January 1924, Pescara's helicopter No.1 was tested but was found to be underpowered and could not lift its own weight. His 2F fared better and set a record.[60] The British government funded further research by Pescara which resulted in helicopter No. 3, powered by a 250-horsepower (190 kW) radial engine which could fly for up to ten minutes.[61][62]
In March 1923 Time magazine reported Thomas Edison sent George de Bothezat a congratulations for a successful helicopter test flight. Edison wrote, "So far as I know, you have produced the first successful helicopter." The helicopter was tested at McCook's Field and remained airborne for 2 minutes and 45 seconds at a height of 15 feet.[63]
On 14 April 1924, Frenchman Étienne Oehmichen set the first helicopter world record recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), flying his quadrotor helicopter 360 meters (1,180 ft).[64] On 18April 1924, Pescara beat Oemichen's record, flying for a distance of 736 meters (2,415 ft)[60] (nearly 0.80 kilometers or .5 miles) in 4 minutes and 11 seconds (about 13 km/h or 8 mph), maintaining a height of 1.8 meters (6 feet).[65] On 4May, Oehmichen completed the first one-kilometer (0.62 mi) closed-circuit helicopter flight in 7 minutes 40 seconds with his No. 2 machine.[53][66]
In the US, George de Bothezat built the quadrotor helicopter de Bothezat helicopter for the United States Army Air Service but the Army cancelled the program in 1924, and the aircraft was scrapped.[citation needed]
Albert Gillis von Baumhauer, a Dutch aeronautical engineer, began studying rotorcraft design in 1923. His first prototype "flew" ("hopped" and hovered in reality) on 24 September 1925,[67] with Dutch Army-Air arm Captain Floris Albert van Heijst at the controls. The controls that van Heijst used were von Baumhauer's inventions, the cyclic and collective.[68][69] Patents were granted to von Baumhauer for his cyclic and collective controls by the British ministry of aviation on 31January 1927, under patent number 265,272.[citation needed]
In 1927,[70] Engelbert Zaschka from Germany built a helicopter, equipped with two rotors, in which a gyroscope was used to increase stability and serves as an energy accumulator for a gliding flight to make a landing. Zaschka's aircraft, the first helicopter, which ever worked so successfully in miniature, not only rises and descends vertically, but is able to remain stationary at any height.[71][72]
In 1928, Hungarian aviation engineer Oszkár Asbóth constructed a helicopter prototype that took off and landed at least 182 times, with a maximum single flight duration of 53 minutes.[73][74]
In 1930, the Italian engineer Corradino D'Ascanio built his D'AT3, a coaxial helicopter. His relatively large machine had two, two-bladed, counter-rotating rotors. Control was achieved by using auxiliary wings or servo-tabs on the trailing edges of the blades,[75] a concept that was later adopted by other helicopter designers, including Bleeker and Kaman. Three small propellers mounted to the airframe were used for additional pitch, roll, and yaw control. The D'AT3 held modest FAI speed and altitude records for the time, including altitude (18 m or 59 ft), duration (8 minutes 45 seconds) and distance flown (1,078 m or 3,540 ft).[75][76]
First practical rotorcraft
[edit]
A Cierva autogyro in the 1920s, one of the predecessors to helicopters
Spanish aeronautical engineer and pilot Juan de la Cierva invented the autogyro in the early 1920s, becoming the first practical rotorcraft.[77] In 1928, de la Cierva successfully flew an autogyro across the English Channel, from London to Paris.[78] In 1934, an autogyro became the first rotorcraft to successfully take off and land on the deck of a ship.[79] That same year, the autogyro was employed by the Spanish military during the Asturias revolt, becoming the first military deployment of a rotocraft. Autogyros were also employed in New Jersey and Pennsylvania for delivering mail and newspapers prior to the invention of the helicopter.[80] Though lacking true vertical flight capability, work on the autogyro forms the basis for helicopter analysis.[81]
Single lift-rotor success
[edit]
In the Soviet Union, Boris N. Yuriev and Alexei M. Cheremukhin, two aeronautical engineers working at the Tsentralniy Aerogidrodinamicheskiy Institut (TsAGI or the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute), constructed and flew the TsAGI 1-EA single lift-rotor helicopter, which used an open tubing framework, a four-blade main lift rotor, and twin sets of 1.8-meter (5.9-foot) diameter, two-bladed anti-torque rotors: one set of two at the nose and one set of two at the tail. Powered by two M-2 powerplants, up-rated copies of the Gnome Monosoupape 9 Type B-2 100 CV output rotary engine of World War I, the TsAGI 1-EA made several low altitude flights.[82] By 14 August 1932, Cheremukhin managed to get the 1-EA up to an unofficial altitude of 605 meters (1,985 feet), shattering d'Ascanio's earlier achievement. As the Soviet Union was not yet a member of the FAI, however, Cheremukhin's record remained unrecognized.[83]
Nicolas Florine, a Russian engineer, built the first twin tandem rotor machine to perform a free flight. It flew in Sint-Genesius-Rode, at the Laboratoire Aérotechnique de Belgique (now von Karman Institute) in April 1933, and attained an altitude of six meters (20 feet) and an endurance of eight minutes. Florine chose a co-rotating configuration because the gyroscopic stability of the rotors would not cancel. Therefore, the rotors had to be tilted slightly in opposite directions to counter torque. Using hingeless rotors and co-rotation also minimised the stress on the hull. At the time, it was one of the most stable helicopters in existence.[84]
The Bréguet-Dorand Gyroplane Laboratoire was built in 1933. It was a coaxial helicopter, contra-rotating. After many ground tests and an accident, it first took flight on 26 June 1935. Within a short time, the aircraft was setting records with pilot Maurice Claisse at the controls. On 14 December 1935, he set a record for closed-circuit flight with a 500-meter (1,600-foot) diameter.[85] The next year, on 26 September 1936, Claisse set a height record of 158 meters (518 feet).[86] And, finally, on 24 November 1936, he set a flight duration record of one hour, two minutes and 50 seconds[87] over a 44 kilometers (27 miles) closed circuit at 44.7 kilometres per hour (27.8 mph). The aircraft was destroyed in 1943 by an Allied airstrike at Villacoublay airport.[88]
American single-rotor beginnings
[edit]
American inventor Arthur M. Young started work on model helicopters in 1928 using converted electric hover motors to drive the rotor head. Young invented the stabilizer bar and patented it shortly after. A mutual friend introduced Young to Lawrence Dale, who once seeing his work asked him to join the Bell Aircraft company. When Young arrived at Bell in 1941, he signed his patent over and began work on the helicopter. His budget was US$250,000 (equivalent to $5.3 million today) to build two working helicopters. In just six months they completed the first Bell Model 1, which spawned the Bell Model 30, later succeeded by the Bell 47.[89]
Birth of an industry
[edit]
Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first successful helicopter
Heinrich Focke at Focke-Wulf had purchased a license from Cierva Autogiro Company, which according to Frank Kingston Smith Sr., included "the fully controllable cyclic/collective pitch hub system". In return, Cierva Autogiro received a cross-license to build the Focke-Achgelis helicopters. Focke designed the world's first practical helicopter, the transverse twin-rotor Focke-Wulf Fw 61, which first flew in June 1936. It was demonstrated by Hanna Reitsch in February 1938 inside the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin.[90] The Fw 61 set a number of FAI records from 1937 to 1939, including: maximum altitude of 3,427 metres (11,243 ft), maximum distance of 230 kilometres (140 mi), and maximum speed of 124 kilometres per hour (77 mph).[91] Autogiro development was now being bypassed by a focus on helicopters.[92]
During World War II, Nazi Germany used helicopters in small numbers for observation, transport, and medical evacuation. The Flettner Fl 282 Kolibri synchropter—using the same basic configuration as Anton Flettner's own pioneering Fl 265—was used in the Baltic, Mediterranean, and Aegean Seas.[93] The Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Drache, like the Fw 61, used two transverse rotors, and was the largest rotorcraft of the war.[94] Extensive bombing by the Allied forces prevented Germany from producing helicopters in large quantities during the war.
The Sikorsky R-4 became the first mass-produced helicopter in the early 1940s, and was capable of vertical takeoff. It performed the first medevac flights during WW2.
In the United States, Russian-born engineer Igor Sikorsky and Wynn Laurence LePage competed to produce the U.S. military's first helicopter. LePage received the patent rights to develop helicopters patterned after the Fw 61, and built the XR-1[95] in 1941. Meanwhile, Sikorsky settled on a simpler, single-rotor design, the VS-300 of 1939, which turned out to be the first practical single lifting-rotor helicopter design. After experimenting with configurations to counteract the torque produced by the single main rotor, Sikorsky settled on a single, smaller rotor mounted on the tail boom.[citation needed]
Developed from the VS-300, Sikorsky's R-4 of 1942 was the first large-scale mass-produced helicopter, with a production order for 100 aircraft. The R-4 was the only Allied helicopter to serve in World War II, used primarily for search and rescue (by the USAAF 1st Air Commando Group) in the Burma campaign;[96] in Alaska; and in other areas with harsh terrain. Total production reached 131 helicopters before the R-4 was replaced by other Sikorsky helicopters such as the R-5 and the R-6. In all, Sikorsky produced over 400 helicopters before the end of World War II.[97]
While LePage and Sikorsky built their helicopters for the military, Bell Aircraft hired Arthur Young to help build a helicopter using Young's two-blade teetering rotor design, which used a weighted stabilizer bar placed at a 90° angle to the rotor blades. The subsequent Model 30 helicopter of 1943 showed the design's simplicity and ease of use. The Model 30 was developed into the Bell 47 of 1945, which became the first helicopter certified for civilian use in the United States (March 1946). Produced in several countries, the Bell 47 was the most popular helicopter model for nearly 30 years.[citation needed]
Turbine age
[edit]
See also: Gas turbine and turboshaft
A turbine powered helicopter with its engine visible
In 1951, at the urging of his contacts at the Department of the Navy, Charles Kaman modified his K-225 synchropter—a design for a twin-rotor helicopter concept first pioneered by Anton Flettner in 1939, with the aforementioned Fl 265 piston-engined design in Germany—with a new kind of engine, the turboshaft engine. This adaptation of the turbine engine provided a large amount of power to Kaman's helicopter with a lower weight penalty than piston engines, with their heavy engine blocks and auxiliary components. On 11December 1951, the Kaman K-225 became the first turbine-powered helicopter in the world. Two years later, on 26 March 1954, a modified Navy HTK-1, another Kaman helicopter, became the first twin-turbine helicopter to fly.[98] However, it was the Sud Aviation Alouette II that would become the first helicopter to be produced with a turbine-engine.[99]
Reliable helicopters capable of stable hover flight were developed decades after fixed-wing aircraft. This is largely due to higher engine power density requirements than fixed-wing aircraft. Improvements in fuels and engines during the first half of the 20th century were a critical factor in helicopter development. The availability of lightweight turboshaft engines in the second half of the 20th century led to the development of larger, faster, and higher-performance helicopters. While smaller and less expensive helicopters still use piston engines, turboshaft engines are the preferred powerplant for helicopters today.[citation needed]
Safety
[edit]
Maximum speed limit
[edit]
A Russian Air Force Kamov Ka-50 using a coaxial rotor system
There are several reasons a helicopter cannot fly as fast as a fixed-wing aircraft. When the helicopter is hovering, the outer tips of the rotor travel at a speed determined by the length of the blade and the rotational speed. In a moving helicopter, however, the speed of the blades relative to the air depends on the speed of the helicopter as well as on their rotational speed. The airspeed of the advancing rotor blade is much higher than that of the helicopter itself. It is possible for this blade to exceed the speed of sound, and thus produce vastly increased drag and vibration.[citation needed]
At the same time, the advancing blade creates more lift traveling forward, the retreating blade produces less lift. If the aircraft were to accelerate to the air speed that the blade tips are spinning, the retreating blade passes through air moving at the same speed of the blade and produces no lift at all, resulting in very high torque stresses on the central shaft that can tip down the retreating-blade side of the vehicle, and cause a loss of control. Dual counter-rotating blades prevent this situation due to having two advancing and two retreating blades with balanced forces.[citation needed]
The Lynx helicopter is noted for its speed
Because the advancing blade has higher airspeed than the retreating blade and generates a dissymmetry of lift, rotor blades are designed to "flap" – lift and twist in such a way that the advancing blade flaps up and develops a smaller angle of attack. Conversely, the retreating blade flaps down, develops a higher angle of attack, and generates more lift. At high speeds, the force on the rotors is such that they "flap" excessively, and the retreating blade can reach too high an angle and stall. For this reason, the maximum safe forward airspeed of a helicopter is given a design rating called VNE, velocity, never exceed.[100] In addition, it is possible for the helicopter to fly at an airspeed where an excessive amount of the retreating blade stalls, which results in high vibration, pitch-up, and roll into the retreating blade.[citation needed]
Noise
[edit]
At the end of the 20th century, designers began working on helicopter noise reduction. Urban communities have often expressed great dislike of noisy aviation or noisy aircraft, and police and passenger helicopters can be unpopular because of the sound. The redesigns followed the closure of some city heliports and government action to constrain flight paths in national parks and other places of natural beauty.[citation needed]
Vibration
[edit]
NASA experiment for piezoelectric rotor blades to potentially reduce the noise and vibration
To reduce vibration, all helicopters have rotor adjustments for height and weight. A maladjusted helicopter can easily vibrate so much that it will shake itself apart. Blade height is adjusted by changing the pitch of the blade. Weight is adjusted by adding or removing weights on the rotor head and/or at the blade end caps. Most also have vibration dampers for height and pitch. Some also use mechanical feedback systems to sense and counter vibration. Usually the feedback system uses a mass as a "stable reference" and a linkage from the mass operates a flap to adjust the rotor's angle of attack to counter the vibration. Adjustment can be difficult in part because measurement of the vibration is hard, usually requiring sophisticated accelerometers mounted throughout the airframe and gearboxes. The most common blade vibration adjustment measurement system is to use a stroboscopic flash lamp, and observe painted markings or coloured reflectors on the underside of the rotor blades. The traditional low-tech system is to mount coloured chalk on the rotor tips, and see how they mark a linen sheet. Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) provide vibration monitoring and rotor track and balance solutions to limit vibration.[101] Gearbox vibration most often requires a gearbox overhaul or replacement. Gearbox or drive train vibrations can be extremely harmful to a pilot. The most severe effects are pain, numbness, and loss of tactile discrimination or dexterity.[citation needed]
Loss of tail-rotor effectiveness
[edit]
For a standard helicopter with a single main rotor, the tips of the main rotor blades produce a vortex ring in the air, which is a spiraling and circularly rotating airflow. As the craft moves forward, these vortices trail off behind the craft.[citation needed]
When hovering with a forward diagonal crosswind, or moving in a forward diagonal direction, the spinning vortices trailing off the main rotor blades will align with the rotation of the tail rotor and cause an instability in flight control.[102]
When the trailing vortices colliding with the tail rotor are rotating in the same direction, this causes a loss of thrust from the tail rotor. When the trailing vortices rotate in the opposite direction of the tail rotor, thrust is increased. Use of the foot pedals is required to adjust the tail rotor's angle of attack, to compensate for these instabilities.[citation needed]
These issues are due to the exposed tail rotor cutting through open air around the rear of the vehicle. This issue disappears when the tail is instead ducted, using an internal impeller enclosed in the tail and a jet of high pressure air sideways out of the tail, as the main rotor vortices can not impact the operation of an internal impeller.[citation needed]
Critical wind azimuth
[edit]
For a standard helicopter with a single main rotor, maintaining steady flight with a crosswind presents an additional flight control problem, where strong crosswinds from certain angles will increase or decrease lift from the main rotors. This effect is also triggered in a no-wind condition when moving the craft diagonally in various directions, depending on the direction of main rotor rotation.[103]
This can lead to a loss of control and a crash or hard landing when operating at low altitudes, due to the sudden unexpected loss of lift, and insufficient time and distance available to recover.[citation needed]
Transmission
[edit]
Conventional rotary-wing aircraft use a set of complex mechanical gearboxes to convert the high rotation speed of gas turbines into the low speed required to drive main and tail rotors. Unlike powerplants, mechanical gearboxes cannot be duplicated (for redundancy) and have always been a major weak point in helicopter reliability. In-flight catastrophic gear failures often result in gearbox jamming and subsequent fatalities, whereas loss of lubrication can trigger onboard fire.[citation needed] Another weakness of mechanical gearboxes is their transient power limitation, due to structural fatigue limits. Recent EASA studies point to engines and transmissions as prime cause of crashes just after pilot errors.[104]
By contrast, electromagnetic transmissions do not use any parts in contact; hence lubrication can be drastically simplified, or eliminated. Their inherent redundancy offers good resilience to single point of failure. The absence of gears enables high power transient without impact on service life. The concept of electric propulsion applied to helicopter and electromagnetic drive was brought to reality by Pascal Chretien who designed, built and flew world's first man-carrying, free-flying electric helicopter. The concept was taken from the conceptual computer-aided design model on 10 September 2010 to the first testing at 30% power on 1 March 2011 – less than six months. The aircraft first flew on 12 August 2011. All development was conducted in Venelles, France.[105][106]
In addition to regulatory measures, helicopter operators are also supported by voluntary safety teams that analyze accident data and promote specific countermeasures. In the United States, for example, the U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST) publishes accident reviews and safety enhancements that address issues such as loss of control in flight, inadvertent flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IIMC), and low-altitude operations, encouraging improvements in training, operational decision-making, and the use of safety-enhancing technologies.[107][108]
Hazards
[edit]
A Eurocopter AS350, destroyed after its main rotor struck the side of a mountain while at low altitude
As with any moving vehicle, unsafe operation could result in loss of control, structural damage, or loss of life. The following is a list of some of the potential hazards for helicopters:
Settling with power is when the aircraft has insufficient power to arrest its descent. This hazard can develop into vortex ring state if not corrected early.[109]
Vortex ring state is a hazard induced by a combination of low airspeed, high power setting, and high descent rate. Rotor-tip vortices circulate from the high pressure air below the rotor disk to low pressure air above the disk, so that the helicopter settles into its own descending airflow.[109] Adding more power increases the rate of air circulation and aggravates the situation. It is sometimes confused with settling with power, but they are aerodynamically different.
Retreating blade stall is experienced during high speed flight and is the most common limiting factor of a helicopter's forward speed.
Ground resonance is a self-reinforcing vibration that occurs when the lead/lag spacing of the blades of an articulated rotor system becomes irregular.
Low-G condition is an abrupt change from a positive G-force state to a negative G-force state that results in loss of lift (unloaded disc) and subsequent roll over. If aft cyclic is applied while the disc is unloaded, the main rotor could strike the tail causing catastrophic failure.[110]
Dynamic rollover in which the helicopter pivots around one of the skids and 'pulls' itself onto its side (almost like a fixed-wing aircraft ground loop).
Powertrain failures, especially those that occur within the shaded area of the height–velocity diagram.
Tail rotor failures which occur from either a mechanical malfunction of the tail rotor control system or a loss of tail rotor thrust authority, called "loss of tail-rotor effectiveness" (LTE).
Brownout in dusty conditions or whiteout in snowy conditions.
Low rotor RPM, is when the engine cannot drive the blades at sufficient RPM to maintain flight.
Rotor overspeed, which can over-stress the rotor hub pitch bearings (brinelling) and, if severe enough, cause blade separation from the aircraft.
Wire and tree strikes due to low altitude operations and take-offs and landings in remote locations.[111]
Controlled flight into terrain in which the aircraft is flown into the ground unintentionally due to a lack of situational awareness.
Mast bumping in some helicopters[112]
List of fatal crashes
[edit]
Deadliest helicopter crashes by death toll
Date
Operator
Aircraft
Event and location
Death toll
19 August 2002
Russia
Mil Mi-26
Shot down over Chechnya
127[113]
9 December 1982
Nicaragua
Mil Mi-8
Shot down by Sandinistan rebels while carrying 88 people. All 84 passengers were killed and all four crew members survived.[114]
84
4 February 1997
Israel
Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion (x2)
Collision over Israel
73
14 December 1992
Russia (Russian Air Force)
Mil Mi-8
Shot down by Georgian forces in Abkhazia using SA-14 MANPADs, despite heavy escort. Three crew and 58 passengers, composed of mainly Russian refugees.[115]
61
4 October 1993
Georgia
Mil Mi-8
Shot down when transporting 60 refugees from eastern Abkhazia; all on board were killed.[115][failed verification]
60
10 May 1977
Israel
CH-53
Crash near Yitav in the Jordan Valley
54
8 January 1968
United States
Sikorsky CH-53A Sea Stallion, USMC
Crash near Đông Hà Combat Base in South Vietnam. All five crew and 41 passengers were killed.
46[116]
11 July 1972
United States
Sikorsky CH-53D Sea Stallion, USMC
Shot down by missile near Quảng Trị in South Vietnam. Six U.S. Marines and 50 Vietnamese Marines on board. Three U.S. Marines and 43 Vietnamese Marines were killed.
46[117]
11 September 1982
United States
Boeing CH-47 Chinook, U.S. Army
Crash at an air show in Mannheim, then located in West Germany.
46[118]
6 November 1986
British International Helicopters
Boeing 234LR Chinook
Crash in the Shetland Islands
45
28 January 1992
Azerbaijan
Mil Mi-8
Shootdown
44
3 July 2009
Pakistan (Pakistan Army)
Mil Mi-17
Crash
41
6 August 2011
United States
CH-47 Chinook
Shootdown, Afghanistan
38[119]
18 August 1971
United States
CH-47 Chinook, U.S. Army
Crash near Pegnitz, then located in West Germany. All four crew and 33 passengers were killed.
37[120]
26 January 2005
United States
Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion, USMC
Crash landed near Ar Rutbah, Iraq
31[121]
World records
[edit]
Record type
Record
Helicopter
Pilot(s)
Date
Location
Note
Ref.
Speed
400.87 km/h (249.09 mph)
Westland Lynx
John Trevor Egginton (UK)
11 August 1986
UK
[122]
Distance without landing
3,561.55 km (2,213.04 mi)
Hughes YOH-6A
Robert G. Ferry (USA)
6 April 1966
United States
[123]
Around-the-world speed
136.7 km/h (84.9 mph)
Agusta A109S Grand
Scott Kasprowicz (USA)
18 August 2008
From and to New York City
via Europe, Russia, Alaska, Canada
No in-flight refueling
[124]
Highest altitude without payload
12,442 m (40,820 ft)
Aerospatiale Lama
Jean Boulet (France)
21 June 1972
France
[125]
Highest level flight altitude
11,010 m (36,120 ft)
Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe
James K. Church
4 November 1971
United States
[126]
Altitude with 40-tonne payload
2,255 m (7,398 ft)
Mil V-12
Vasily Kolochenko, et al.
6 August 1969
USSR
[127]
Highest takeoff (turbine)
8,848 m (29,029 ft)
Eurocopter AS350
Didier Delsalle
14 May 2005
Nepal
Mount Everest
[128]
Highest takeoff (piston)
4,300.7 m (14,110 ft)
Robinson R44
Mark Young
12 October 2009
United States
Pike's Peak, Colorado
[129]
First manned electric flight
Purely electric hover
Solution F Prototype
Pascal Chretien
12 August 2011
France
Venelles
[130]
Longest human-powered lift
Pedalling, lift 64 s endurance, 3.3 m height; diagonal width: 46.9 m
AeroVelo Atlas, 4 rotors
Todd Reichert
13 June 2013
Canada
Indoor soccer stadium; Igor I. Sikorsky Competition winner
[131]
See also
[edit]
Aviation portal
RAF Merlin HC3A Helicopter
Attack helicopter
Backpack helicopter
Cyclogyro
Disk loading
Helicopter dynamics
Helicopter height–velocity diagram
Helicopter manufacturer
Helicopter Underwater Escape Training
Jesus nut, the top central big nut that holds the rotor on
List of helicopter airlines
List of rotorcraft
Transverse flow effect
Utility helicopter
Wire strike protection system
Tiltrotor
References
[edit]
Notes
[edit]
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Footnotes
[edit]
^
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^"helicopter". The Free Dictionary. Archived from the original on 31 October 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
^Cottez 1980, p. 181.
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^[1] (Definitions and Abbreviations) of Subchapter A of Chapter I of Title 14 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations
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^Bailey, Norman (2014) Helicopter Pilot's Manual Crowood, ISBN 9781847979230, 1847979238
^Bevel Gear Fundamentals and Applications, Jan Klingelnberg, 2015, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, ISBN 9783662438930, 3662438933
^ abJohn M. Seddon, Simon Newman. Basic Helicopter Aerodynamics Archived 30 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine p. 216, John Wiley and Sons, 2011. Retrieved 25 February 2012. ISBN 1-119-99410-1. Quote: "The rotor is best served by rotating at a constant rotor speed"
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^ abcLeishman, J. Gordon (2006). Principles of Helicopter Aerodynamics Archived 25 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Cambridge University Press. p. 8. ISBN 0-521-85860-7
^ abcRumerman, Judy. "Early Helicopter Technology". Archived 20 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine Centennial of Flight Commission, 2003. Retrieved 12 December 2010
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^ abcdMunson 1968.
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^Taylor, Michael J. H. Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation, p. 348. London: Studio Editions, 1989.
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^H.J.G.C. Vodegel and K.P. Jessurun. A Historical Review of Two Helicopters Designed in the Netherlands. 21st European Rotocraft Forum, 1995, Saint Petersburg, Russia. web extract[permanent dead link]
^Alex de Voogt. The Transmission of Helicopter Technology, 1920-1939: Exchanges with von Baumhauer. Int. j. for the history of eng. & tech., Vol. 83 No. 1, January 2013, 119–40. web extract Archived 25 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine
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^Zaschka, Engelbert (18 May 2016), "HD Engelbert Zaschka – ein Universalgenie und Erfinder: Musik, Fahrzeuge & Flugzeuge [SWR-Doku 2016]", The Zaschka Innovation, archived from the original on 6 November 2016, retrieved 11 November 2016 – via Youtube.com
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^ abSpenser 1998
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^Wayne Johnson, Rotorcraft Aeromechanics, Cambridge University Press, p. 19 (2013)
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Bibliography
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External links
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Helicopters.
Look up helicopter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
"Helicopterpage.com – How Helicopters Work" Complete site explaining different aspects of helicopters and how they work.
"Planes That Go Straight Up". 1935 article about early development and research into helicopters.
"Flights — of the Imagination". 1918 article on helicopter design concepts.
"Twin Windmill Blades Fly Wingless Ship" Popular Mechanics, April 1936
Silent (Russian-language intertitled) video about the Cheremukhin/Yuriev TsAGI 1-EA pioneer helicopter
American Helicopter Society
U.S. Helicopter Safety Team
Helicopter Safety Enhancements
Graham Warwick (17 June 2016). "How The Helicopter Has Developed". Aviation Week & Space Technology. Getting from idea to reality took far longer for the helicopter than for the fixed-wing aircraft.
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Lift: Lighter than air gas
Lift: Fixed wing
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Lift: Powered rotor
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(None – see note 2)
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Note 1: A tiltwing or tiltrotor aircraft functions as an aeroplane during normal (horizontal) flight and as a helicopter during low-speed flight.
Note 2: For full-size aircraft with powered rotors the rotor is normally tilted to achieve thrust (e.g. in a helicopter). Some toys (e.g. balloon helicopter) do have a powered rotor with no means to tilt the rotor to produce horizontal thrust.
Note 3: Ground-effect vehicles and hovercraft are not included in the table, nor are experimental aircraft with novel thrust / lift solutions (e.g. coleopter, Flying Bedstead, Avrocar and flettner airplane) or balloon-wing hybrids (e.g. kytoon and hybrid airship).
We booked this as a surprise for my son's birthday and we nailed it - he loved the thrill of the helicopter ride itself, but also the spectacular views from above. The pilot was very friendly and knowledgeable. We learned so much more about Abu Dhabi than we would have ever done from walking around - and the views from above of the Mosque and of the palaces are unmatched.It is MUST experience in Abu Dhabi.
Helicopter Ride and Tours Dubai, Al Warsan Building - near Media Rotana, Ground Floor - Al Thanyah First - Barsha Heights - Dubai - United Arab Emirates
Helicopter Ride and Tours Dubai, Al Warsan Building - near Media Rotana, Ground Floor - Al Thanyah First - Barsha Heights - Dubai - United Arab Emirates
Helicopter Ride and Tours Dubai, Al Warsan Building - near Media Rotana, Ground Floor - Al Thanyah First - Barsha Heights - Dubai - United Arab Emirates
Helicopter Ride and Tours Dubai, Al Warsan Building - near Media Rotana, Ground Floor - Al Thanyah First - Barsha Heights - Dubai - United Arab Emirates
Helicopter Ride and Tours Dubai, Al Warsan Building - near Media Rotana, Ground Floor - Al Thanyah First - Barsha Heights - Dubai - United Arab Emirates
Helicopter Ride and Tours Dubai, Al Warsan Building - near Media Rotana, Ground Floor - Al Thanyah First - Barsha Heights - Dubai - United Arab Emirates
Helicopter Ride and Tours Dubai, Al Warsan Building - near Media Rotana, Ground Floor - Al Thanyah First - Barsha Heights - Dubai - United Arab Emirates
Helicopter Ride and Tours Dubai, Al Warsan Building - near Media Rotana, Ground Floor - Al Thanyah First - Barsha Heights - Dubai - United Arab Emirates
Helicopter Ride and Tours Dubai, Al Warsan Building - near Media Rotana, Ground Floor - Al Thanyah First - Barsha Heights - Dubai - United Arab Emirates
Helicopter Ride and Tours Dubai, Al Warsan Building - near Media Rotana, Ground Floor - Al Thanyah First - Barsha Heights - Dubai - United Arab Emirates