Why Helicopters are Different and More Difficult to Fly

Some say helicopters beat the air into submission so they can fly. While this is not true, the helicopter flies differently than an airplane. In many ways, it is much more difficult to fly because if you move one control, you must move the other two. In this YouTube video, Marc provides a brief history of the helicopter from the first one built by Focke-Wulf in 1936 to the modern compound helicopter that has both rotors and propellers. In this presentation, he also covers the differences in how a helicopter’s flight controls work in terms a layman can understand. Marc, who has 3,000 hours of helicopter flying under his belt, also covers five factors that make helicopters more difficult and dangerous to fly.