What would cause a helicopter to spin out of control?

A helicopter may spin out of control when the anti-torque system is unable to counteract the torque being created by the engine. When the torque of the engine is greater than the thrust being produced by the anti-torque system, the helicopter will begin to spin.

Do helicopters spin when crashing?

If the main rotor is taken out, and taking that the fuel flow to the rear rotors is cut, there should just be a brief moment of spinning before the helicopter stops the spinning and crashes. It depends on where the helicopter is hit. In the movies, it seems that the helicopter always spins out of control.

What would happen if a missile hit a helicopter with rotors?

That will depend on where it is hit. In most movies, the helicopter usually strikes the rear of the helicopter as the missile tracks the heat signature from the engines. Without the rear rotors, the helicopter will spin out of control as there were no forces acting on the rotation caused by the main rotors.

What causes a helicopter to spin?

What will make a helicopter spin is if these forces (the torque from the main rotor and the counter-torque from the tail rotor) are mis-matched. If the main rotor is spinning counterclockwise, the helicopter will try to spin clockwise in reaction (Newton’s Third Law – for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction).

What happens if a helicopter is hit in the tail?

It depends on where the helicopter is hit. In the movies, it seems that the helicopter always spins out of control. That is probably what would happen if the aircraft is hit in the tail (or tail boom). A sudden loss of tail rotor thrust will cause the helicopter to spin.

What does a single engine do in a helicopter?

A single engine powers both the main rotor blade and the tail rotor. One of Sikorsky’s key innovations was to produce a helicopter that needed only one main rotor blade, with a tail rotor to balance it, for reasons discussed below.