Autorotation

certicate.[5]

This article is about autorotation of rotary wing aircraft.

For autorotation of xed-wing aircraft, see Autorotation
(xed-wing aircraft).
Autorotation is a state of ight in which the main

The longest autorotation in history was performed by

Jean Boulet in 1972 when he reached a record altitude
of 12,440 m (40,814 ft) in an Arospatiale Lama. Because of a 63 C (81.4 F) temperature at that altitude,
as soon as he reduced power the engine amed out and
could not be restarted. By using autorotation he was able
to land the aircraft safely.[6]

1 Descent and landing

For a helicopter, autorotation refers to the descending
maneuver in which the engine is disengaged from the
main rotor system and the rotor blades are driven solely by
the upward ow of air through the rotor. The freewheeling unit is a special clutch mechanism that disengages anytime the engine rotational speed is less than the rotor rotational speed. If the engine fails, the freewheeling unit
automatically disengages the engine from the main rotor
allowing the main rotor to rotate freely.
The most common reason for autorotation is an engine
malfunction or failure, but autorotation can also be performed in the event of a complete tail rotor failure, or
following loss of tail-rotor eectiveness,[7] since there is
virtually no torque produced in an autorotation. If altitude permits, autorotations may also be used to recover
from vortex ring state.[2] In all cases, a successful landing depends on the helicopters height and velocity at the
commencement of autorotation (see height-velocity diagram).

Airow through a helicopter rotor. Above, the rotor is powered

and pushing air downward, generating lift and thrust. Below,
the helicopter rotor has lost power, and the craft is making an
emergency landing,

rotor system of a helicopter or similar aircraft turns

by the action of air moving up through the rotor, as
with an autogyro, rather than engine power driving the
rotor.[1][2][3] The term autorotation dates to a period of
early helicopter development between 1915 and 1920,
and refers to the rotors turning without the engine.[4]

At the instant of engine failure, the main rotor blades

are producing lift and thrust from their angle of attack
and velocity. By immediately lowering collective pitch,
which must be done in case of an engine failure, the pilot
reduces lift and drag and the helicopter begins an immediate descent, producing an upward ow of air through
the rotor system. This upward ow of air through the
rotor provides sucient thrust to maintain rotor rotational speed throughout the descent. Since the tail rotor
is driven by the main rotor transmission during autorotation, heading control is maintained as in normal ight.

In normal powered helicopter ight, air is drawn into the

main rotor system from above and exhausted downward,
but during autorotation, air moves up into the rotor system from below as the helicopter descends. Autorotation
is permitted mechanically because of both a freewheeling
unit, which allows the main rotor to continue turning even
if the engine is not running, as well as aerodynamic forces
of relative wind maintaining rotor speed. It is the means
by which a helicopter can land safely in the event of complete engine failure. Consequently, all single-engine helicopters must demonstrate this capability to obtain a type

Several factors aect the rate of descent in autorotation:

density altitude, gross weight, rotor rotational speed, and
forward airspeed. The pilots primary control of the rate
of descent is airspeed. Higher or lower airspeeds are obtained with the cyclic pitch control just as in normal ight.
Rate of descent is high at zero airspeed and decreases
1

2 SEE ALSO

to a minimum at approximately 50 to 90 knots, depending upon the particular helicopter and the factors previously mentioned. As the airspeed increases beyond the
speed that gives minimum rate of descent, the rate of descent increases again. Even at zero airspeed, the rotor is
quite eective as it has nearly the drag coecient of a
parachute[8][9] despite having much lower solidity.
When landing from an autorotation, the kinetic energy
stored in the rotating blades is used to decrease the rate
of descent and make a soft landing. A greater amount of
rotor energy is required to stop a helicopter with a high
rate of descent than is required to stop a helicopter that is
descending more slowly. Therefore, autorotative descents
at very low or very high airspeeds are more critical than
those performed at the minimum rate of descent airspeed.
Each type of helicopter has a specic airspeed at which a
power-o glide is most ecient. The best airspeed is the
one that combines the greatest glide range with the slowest rate of descent. The specic airspeed is dierent for
each type of helicopter, yet certain factors (density altitude, wind) aect all congurations in the same manner. Blade regions in vertical autorotation descent.
The specic airspeed for autorotations is established for
each type of helicopter on the basis of average weather
and wind conditions and normal loading.
plies thrust, which tends to accelerate the rotation of the
A helicopter operated with heavy loads in high density blade. Driving region size varies with blade pitch setting,
altitude or gusty wind conditions can achieve best per- rate of descent, and rotor rotational speed.
formance from a slightly increased airspeed in the descent. At low density altitude and light loading, best performance is achieved from a slight decrease in normal
airspeed. Following this general procedure of tting airspeed to existing conditions, the pilot can achieve approximately the same glide angle in any set of circumstances
and estimate the touchdown point. This optimum glide
angle is usually 17-20 degrees.[10]

1.1

Autorotational regions

During vertical autorotation, the rotor disc is divided into

three regionsthe driven region, the driving region, and
the stall region. The size of these regions vary with the
blade pitch, rate of descent, and rotor rotational speed.
When changing autorotative rotational speed, blade pitch,
or rate of descent, the size of the regions change in relation to each other.
The driven region, also called the propeller region, is the
region at the end of the blades. Normally, it consists of
about 30 percent of the radius. It is the driven region that
produces the most drag. The overall result is a deceleration in the rotation of the blade.
The driving region, or autorotative region, normally lies
between 25 and 70 percent of the blade radius, which
produces the forces needed to turn the blades during autorotation. Total aerodynamic force in the driving region
is inclined slightly forward of the axis of rotation, producing a continual acceleration force. This inclination sup-

The inner 25 percent of the rotor blade is referred to as

the stall region and operates above its maximum angle of
attack (stall angle) causing drag, which slows rotation of
the blade. A constant rotor rotational speed is achieved by
adjusting the collective pitch so blade acceleration forces
from the driving region are balanced with the deceleration
forces from the driven and stall regions.
By controlling the size of the driving region, the pilot can
adjust autorotative rotational speed. For example, if the
collective pitch is raised, the pitch angle increases in all
regions. This causes the point of equilibrium to move
inboard along the blades span, thereby increasing the size
of the driven region. The stall region also becomes larger
while the driving region becomes smaller. Reducing the
size of the driving region causes the acceleration force of
the driving region and rotational speed to decrease.

2 See also
Helicopter
Autogyro
Helicopter ight controls
Loss of tail-rotor eectiveness
Height-velocity diagram

References

[1] Rotorcraft Flying Handbook (PDF). U.S. Government

Printing Oce, Washington D.C.: U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration. 2000. pp. 161. ISBN 1-56027-404-2.
FAA-8083-21. a gyroplane rotor system operates in autorotation
[2] Bensen, Igor. "How they y - Bensen explains all" Gyrocopters UK. Accessed: 10 April 2014. Quote: air.. (is)
deected downward
[3] Charnov, Bruce H. Cierva, Pitcairn and the Legacy of
Rotary-Wing Flight Hofstra University. Accessed: 22
November 2011.
[4] Autorotation, Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 17 April 2007
[5] USA Federal Aviation Regulations, 27.71 Autorotation
performance
[6] Autorotation Learning to Fly Helicopters
[7] Rotorcraft Flying Handbook Section 11-12, Federal Aviation Administration, Skyhorse Publishing (July 2007)
ISBN 978-1-60239-060-7
[8] Johnson, Wayne. Helicopter theory p109, Courier Dover
Publications, 1980. Accessed: 25 February 2012. ISBN
0-486-68230-7
[9] John M. Seddon, Simon Newman. Basic Helicopter Aerodynamics p52, John Wiley and Sons, 2011. Accessed: 25
February 2012. ISBN 1-119-99410-1
[10] Paul Cantrell. "Aerodynamics of Autorotation - steady
state descent" Copters Accessed: 11 November 2013.

External links
Popular explanation of autorotation written by Paul
Cantrell.
Pilots 'exceptional ying' saves $540,000 helicopter
The New Zealand Herald, Monday 18 February
2008

5 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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Autorotation Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorotation?oldid=725402673 Contributors: Julesd, Cherkash, Rl, Beland, Savuporo, Discospinster, Tronno, Gary, Drbreznjev, Brookie, LOL, Swamp Ig, GregorB, Trovatore, SmackBot, A. B., Mryakima, Christian75,
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