What can a helicopter do that a plane can't?

Whup, whup, whup! Have you ever heard that sound up in the sky? It comes from a helicopter flying over the houses. Planes fly up there too, high above the roofs.

Planes and helicopters both fly, but they are not the same. So what can a helicopter do that a plane can't? Let's find out together.

A big plane needs a long, flat road at the airport. It races along that road, faster and faster. Its wings lift it only when air rushes past them fast. So a plane must keep zooming forward the whole time it flies.

A helicopter has long, thin blades on its top. We call them the rotor, which means the spinning blades on top. When the pilot starts the engine, the rotor spins round and round, very fast.

As it spins, the rotor pushes air down, hard and fast. The air pushes back and lifts the helicopter up. When that push up is stronger than the helicopter's weight, up it goes!

So a helicopter needs no long road at all. The pilot makes it rise straight up from the spot where it stands. Soon it is high above the trees. Can you guess what a helicopter can do up there that a plane can't?

It can stay still in the air! We call this hovering, which means staying in one spot up in the sky. The pilot keeps the rotor pushing air down to hold the helicopter there. A big plane can never hover.

Because it can hover, a helicopter can land in tiny places. It hovers over a small flat spot, like a rooftop or a little patch of grass. Then the pilot lets it sink slowly, straight down, with the rotor still spinning.

A helicopter's spinning rotor pushes air down, so it can rise straight up and hover. A big plane can never hover like that.

Whup, whup, whup! Up above the roofs, a helicopter hangs still in the sky. Its rotor spins round and round and holds it right there.