Four Types of Helicopter Designs

During the evolution of the past 100 years, four principal helicopter designs have been developed and produced in the world:

The single rotor design

This is the most common helicopter design that has a main and a small tail rotor, made famous by Sikorsky & Bell by selling thousands to the U.S. Government and worldwide.

The coaxial design

This design has two rotors mounted one on top of the other on a single axis and rotating in opposite directions. Both Peter Papadakos of the U.S., and Kamov Design Bureau of Russia perfected this design primarily for military applications. Russian Kamov KA-50 and 52 have been designed to challenge the U.S. Apache Attack Helicopters.

The tandem twin rotor design

This design also has two rotors, one in the front and one in the rear of the aircraft. This designed was pursued by Frank Pisecki and made famous by Boeing Aircraft Company.

 The syncropter design

This design utilizes two intermeshing rotors, one located on each side of the aircraft. Charlie Kaman of Kaman Corporation was the pioneer for the syncropter design.  His Kmax aerial truck is now sold around the world.