Can they make a helicopter with a jet engine instead of the old big prop.?

Question

Can they make a helicopter with a jet engine instead of the old big prop.?

Answer 1

A modern helicopter usually has a jet engine powering the rotor.

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That spinning thing above the helicopter is not a propeller.  It's known as a rotary wing.  It's what lifts the craft into the air.

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Think of it as a wing that is spinning around.  Instead of pushing the wing through the air to create lift in rotary wing aircraft the wing is above the craft and spins in place.  That is about as simplified as I can express it.  

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An aircraft held aloft by the power of a jet engine alone would be very inefficient.

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Answer 2

At this point wouldn't it be a jet not as helicopter?

Answer 3

They already have made jets that perform the same funtion as a helicopter. They just call it something different.

Answer 4

it is a jet engine with a pitch adjustable prop for downward thrust to create lift and thus the movement / dynamics of a helicoptor

The harrier is a jet with roating and adjustable nozzles that directs the jet thrust downward allowing the jet to take off vertically and hover

Answer 5

it would no longer be helicopter but merely a VTOL aircraft such as harrier.

there have appeared designs of helicopters that use the jet engines to propell the rotor blades /the engines were mounted at the tips of blades/ but that proved to be a problematic setup due to the aeroelasticity effects.

Answer 6

Helicopters do not have an "old big prop;" it's called the "rotor," and it is actually a rotary wing that lifts the helicopter the same way an airplane's wing lifts the airplane.

There are aircraft that use the thrust of a jet engine to produce direct lift.  There are numerous technological problems that make such machines very difficult to design and create, and the ones that have been built have been marginally successful.

The main thing is the matter of efficiency and fuel burn.  Helicopters can be built to be reasonably efficient and to have range and endurance figures that are practical for everyday use.  A direct-lift jet engine uses too much fuel for practical purposes.

For much more information, try an internet search on "vertical flight."

Answer 7

They can and they do. some choppers are powered by turbine engines (jet engines). but the jet isnt producing the trust to take off. The jet is still powering the roter blades (not a prop) which is still what produces the downward thrust needed to take off.