Different types of transport - Part 6 Helicopters - Information for little ones

We have learned about airplanes and today we will look at another type of air transport and that is a helicopter.  There are a few differences between an airplane and a helicopter, but the main one is that a helicopter can lift off from the ground straight into the air and the propeller is on the roof.

Helicopters are agile aircraft capable of taking off and landing vertically, hovering and flying in different directions. 

The movement of the helicopter is possible because it has rotors on top with two or more blades that spin.

Most helicopters have the top rotor and also one on the tail which will counter the 'torque' to prevent the helicopter from spinning in a circle.

If the helicopter is used to lift heavy objects or are part of rescue missions, it will have two horizontal rotors that spin in opposite directions.

It is much better to use a helicopter in a rescue mission because it can go in to hard to reach places and can easily move from one side to another - not the situation with an airplane.

Helicopters can be used for a few purposes like rescue missions, by the police or to take water out to places in the mountains that are burning or just for fun and getting from one place to another.

There are a few negative things about a helicopter and that is they are very noisy, they can shake a lot and they are not as fast as an airplane.

The idea of vertical lift off goes back as far as 400BC when Chinese kids played with toys made from bamboo which went into the air if it was spun around.

Leonardo da Vinci designed a machine in 1480 that resembled the helicopter and was called a 'aerial screw'.

The first working helicopter is believed to have been the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, first flown in 1936. 

The fastest a helicopter has ever flown was about 400 km/h and the longest distance without landing was about 3560 km.

It is very difficult to just hover with a helicopter and the pilot must be well trained, since the helicopter pushes down a lot of wind to the ground which can easily 'tip' the helicopter.

Some people call helicopters 'choppers'.  Have you ever been on a helicopter?  Which of the modes of transport we have done so far have you been on?