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tim36272 t1_ixc5rzp wrote

Reply to comment by eye_spi in When a military helicopter fires thousands of rounds while hovering still, does the operator have to slow the rotor to compensate for weight loss? by Legitimate-BurnerAcc

The rotor acts as a wing in forward flight, providing some of the lift. That was actually wrong: it’s because the vertical speed of the “fresh” air you’re flying into during forward flight is 0 (in the absence of external forces) whereas in hover the air above and below the rotor is already moving down, thus it takes more energy to accelerate that air further.

Same reason it takes less power to fly forward than to hover.

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