Do you ever wonder what some of the components look like on our helicopters that keep them flying?
Here we have a picture of a main gearbox with the main rotor system attached. The main gearbox is similar to a transmission on a car and it is powered by two engines (not pictured). The main gearbox drives the main rotor head by a shaft that connects at the lower end of the main rotor head. The main rotor head, which rotates clockwise, is the center hub with four arms which are flexible in the flapping (up/down) axis, but rigid in the lead/lag axis (left/right). The rotor blades (not pictured) are connected to the center hub. You can also see red lines which will provide hydraulic fluid to the flight control system allowing us to control the helicopter. As you can see this main gearbox and main rotor head was in the process of being lifted by an overhead bridge crane to be installed in an MH65D.
