Originally Posted by
whirly_bird
(pure intuitively) I would have thought that the angular momentum of the rotor disc is on the small side compared to the lift generated by the blades.
(purely intuitively) I would have thought that with the angular momentum on the "small side" that you could easily enough reach up and stop the rotor with your hand? Especially perhaps in the case where the lift was zero - the helicopter on the ground with the rotors running.
Whatever it is, the angular momentum of a running helicopter rotor system is not small. If it was small, engine-off landings wouldn't work out as well as they do.
