Since I’m a fairly curious and technical kind of person, I needed to know all the gory details of exactly how helicopters fly. Here is what I found out:
- Very nice series (part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11) by Colin Mill on different aspects of model helicopters. Subject goes from servo linkage through Bell-Hiller ratios. The articles are fairly old (1995-1996) but the physics are still the same!
- Dynamic Helicopter Aerodynamics describes all the aerodynamic effects on (real-size) helicopters. Most of these effects also apply to model helicopters, although some become less important. Covered topics go from basic airfoils to vortex ring state and dynamic rollover.
- The same site also has a Dynamic Flight Maneuvers section, bringing the aerodynamics into practical situations such as ridgeline landings or plain simple hoovers.
