Welcome

Welcome to Spinning Wing. We aim to provide useful content about helicopters, tiltrotors, and wind turbines—machines with spinning wings. We are in the process of creating new articles. Feel free to let us know if you have any recommendations, comments or questions.

February 7, 2023. We added a discussion of high speed VTOL aircraft.

January 18, 2023. We updated our page describing helicopter engines.

December 17, 2022. We added a page describing scenarios where tail rotor effectiveness and / or yaw control are lost.

December 3, 2022. We added a page on direct drive wind turbines.

Helicopters

Flight Test Data: Estimating Frequency and Damping

Helicopter Abbreviations and Symbols

Helicopter Components

• Avionics
• Helicopter Anti-Torque Systems
• Helicopter Engines
• Helicopter Landing Gear
• Helicopter Main Rotor Swashplate
• Helicopter SAS and SCAS

Helicopter Flight, Control and Stability

• Collective Rigging for Autorotation
• Coordinated Turns
• Helicopter Autorotation
• Helicopter Climbs
• Helicopter Control Forces
• Helicopter Controls
• Helicopter Forward Flight
• Helicopter Ground Resonance
• Helicopter Lateral Flight
• Helicopter Off-Axis Control Responses
• Helicopter Stability

Helicopter Forces and Moments

Helicopter modeling and simulation

• Helicopter Linear Models

Helicopter Performance

• Important Helicopter Airspeeds

Helicopter Rotors

• Helicopter Blade Modes
• Helicopter Flap Dynamics
• Helicopter Main Rotor Design
• Helicopter Retreating Blade Stall
• Helicopter Tail Rotor Design
• Helicopter Transverse Flow
• Loss of Tail Rotor Thrust and Critical Azimuth
• Momentum Theory for a Hovering Helicopter
• Rotor Track and Balance
• Three State Dynamic Wake

Other Rotorcraft

Calculators

Helicopter Models

High Speed VTOL

Personal Air Vehicles

V-22 Controls

Wind Turbines

Direct Drive Wind Turbines

Wind Turbine Airfoil Design

Wind Turbine Components

Wind Turbine Startup Process