What is the difference between a helicopter rotor and propeller?

Answer 1

A typical aircraft propellor cuts through the air much like a screw and provides thrust to the aircraft. Many of the modern airplanes have propellors which are variable pitch and they change pitch so that it can increase the blade angle to grab more air or decrease the angle to grab less. When the pitch is changed by the pilot, both (or all 3 or 4) blades change pitch at the same time and the same angle. === === The main rotor blades of a helicopter provides lift and thrust for forward motion. To do this, the rotor controls input a pitch control to the Blade that is moving to the Aft and decreases pitch to the blade moving forward or vice versa. Therefore, unlike the typical airplane propellor, the helicopter blades do not have the same pitch ange. One result of this is that the loads on the blade attachments (or grips) and the Mast have higher bending loads and torque loads and the loads are not symmetrical as it would be with regular propellor blades.