Basic Helicopter Aerodynamics

Basic Helicopter Aerodynamics is widely appreciated as an easily accessible, rounded introduction to the first principles of the aerodynamics of helicopter flight. Simon Newman has brought this third edition completely up to date with a full new set of illustrations and imagery. An accompanying website www.wiley.com/go/seddon contains all the calculation files used in the book, problems, solutions, PPT slides and supporting MATLAB® code. Simon Newman addresses the unique considerations applicable to rotor UAVs and MAVs, and coverage of blade dynamics is expanded to include both flapping, lagging and ground resonance. New material is included on blade tip design, flow characteristics surrounding the rotor in forward flight, tail rotors, brown-out, blade sailing and shipborne operations. Concentrating on the well-known Sikorsky configuration of single main rotor with tail rotor, early chapters deal with the aerodynamics of the rotor in hover, vertical flight, forward flight and climb. Analysis of these motions is developed to the stage of obtaining the principal results for thrust, power and associated quantities. Later chapters turn to the characteristics of the overall helicopter, its performance, stability and control, and the important field of aerodynamic research is discussed, with some reference also to aerodynamic design practice. This introductory level treatment to the aerodynamics of helicopter flight will appeal to aircraft design engineers and undergraduate and graduate students in aircraft design, as well as practising engineers looking for an introduction to or refresher course on the subject.

This volume is an excellent introduction to the aerodynamics of helicopters. Basic Helicopter Aerodynamics provides an account of the first principles in the fluid mechanics and flight dynamics of single-rotor helicopters. The text is intended to provide, in a short volume, an introduction to the theory of rotary-wing aircraft for use by undergraduate and graduate students, while providing a detailed description of the physical phenomena involved. The text assumes that the reader already has some knowledge of differences between the fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. Many diagrams, drawings, graphs, and representative sets of data augment the text.

Helicopters are highly capable and useful rotating-wing aircraft with roles that encompass a variety of civilian and military applications. Their usefulness lies in their unique ability to take off and land vertically, to hover stationary relative to the ground, and to fly forward, backward, or sideways. These unique flying qualities, however, come at a high cost including complex aerodynamic problems, significant vibrations, high levels of noise, and relatively large power requirements compared to fixed-wing aircraft. This book, written by an internationally recognized expert, provides a thorough, modern treatment of the aerodynamic principles of helicopters and other rotating-wing vertical lift aircraft. Every chapter is extensively illustrated and concludes with a bibliography and homework problems. Advanced undergraduate and graduate students, practising engineers, and researchers will welcome this thorough and up-to-date text on rotating-wing aerodynamics.

This book gives an account from first principles of the aerodynamics of helicopter flight, concentrating on the well-known Sikorsky configuration of single main rotor with tail rotor. Early chapters deal with the aerodynamics of the rotor in hover, vertical flight, forward flight and climb. Analysis of these motions is developed to the stage of obtaining the principal results for thrust, power and associated quantities but the lengthy mathematical treatment of some textbooks is avoided. Later chapters turn to the characteristics of the overall helicopter, its performance, stability and control, and the important field of aerodynamic research is discussed, with some reference also to aerodynamic design practice. The Second Edition has been revised to illustrate more fully the various features of rotor aerodynamics and helicopter design. The helicopter is unique in its linking of the aerodynamic and mechanical features and a full appreciation of these air vehicles can only be achieved by understanding these interactions. Many of the extra figures illustrate the diversity in the design and operation of a helicopter and these differences are highlighted in the text. The book is aimed initially at the needs of undergraduates and postgraduates. However, because of its conciseness, it is likely to prove useful also to workers at any stage, as a background to short industrial courses or for anyone needing a refresher course in the basics of the subject.

This book is developed to serve as a concise text for a course on helicopter aerodynamics at the introductory level. It introduces to the rotary-wing aerodynamics, with applications to helicopters, and application of the relevant principles to the aerodynamic design of a helicopter rotor and its blades. The basic aim of this book is to make a complete text covering both the basic and applied aspects of theory of rotary wing flying machine for students, engineers, and applied physicists. The philosophy followed in this book is that the subject of helicopter aerodynamics is covered combining the theoretical analysis, physical features and the application aspects. Considerable number of solved examples and exercise problems with answers are coined for this book. This book will cater to the requirement of numerical problems on helicopter flight performance, which is required for the students of aeronautical/aerospace engineering.. SALIENT FEATURES • To provide an introductory treatment of the aerodynamic theory of rotary-wing aircraft • To study the fundamentals of rotor aerodynamics for rotorcraft in hovering flight, axial flight, and forward flight modes • To perform blade element analysis, investigate rotating blade motion, and quantify basic helicopter performance

Written by an internationally recognized teacher and researcher, this book provides a thorough, modern treatment of the aerodynamic principles of helicopters and other rotating-wing vertical lift aircraft such as tilt rotors and autogiros. The text begins with a unique technical history of helicopter flight, and then covers basic methods of rotor aerodynamic analysis, and related issues associated with the performance of the helicopter and its aerodynamic design. It goes on to cover more advanced topics in helicopter aerodynamics, including airfoil flows, unsteady aerodynamics, dynamic stall, and rotor wakes, and rotor-airframe aerodynamic interactions, with final chapters on autogiros and advanced methods of helicopter aerodynamic analysis. Extensively illustrated throughout, each chapter includes a set of homework problems. Advanced undergraduate and graduate students, practising engineers, and researchers will welcome this thoroughly revised and updated text on rotating-wing aerodynamics.

Monumental engineering text covers vertical flight, forward flight, performance, mathematics of rotating systems, rotary wing dynamics and aerodynamics, aeroelasticity, stability and control, stall, noise, and more. 189 illustrations. 1980 edition.

This is a collection of the Ray Prouty's columns in Rotor and Wing and American Helicopter Society's Vertiflite magazine from 1992 to 2004.