The Sole Reason Why Helicopters Can’t Be Bigger Than They Are

U.S. Department of Defense

Size Matters.

Helicopters are interesting contraptions that come in a variety of roles as well as sizes. Some of those roles would be better suited for a helicopter that is bigger in size. So why don’t we see helicopters the size of planes and how do we make helicopters larger than they already are?

Planes and helicopters essentially do that same thing but there are some restrictions on the size. The limitations on helicopter size are mainly due to the physics of the aircraft, there is only so much lift you can achieve considering its size. Many factors come into play for helicopters including weight, size of rotator blades and the speed it will travel.

Adding wing area or increasing rotator speed seems like the easy fix to the problem but it does have a few drawbacks. Additional wing area can create more weight to the helicopter and if the tips of a rotator go faster than the speed of sound it creates turbulence to the flight.

There are a number of ways to make helicopters bigger while remaining safe to fly without issues. This interesting video from Seeker shows the ways that helicopters could gain larger size to be on a level with planes.