Originally Posted by
Jack Carson
Sikorsky was one of the first to cant the tail rotor. At the time Sikorsky believed correctly that the Canted Tail Rotor provided additional vertical lift at a very small total increase in tail rotor power required. If one looks at the law of cosines. Canting the tail 20 degrees reduces the anti-torque thrust by 34% (sine of 20 degrees) thus requiring addition scale up of the tail rotor for anti-torque. At the same time the cosine of 20 degrees provides for 94 % of the thrust going to lift. In essence the tail rotor is carrying its own weight. Other manufacturers are following Sikorsky’s lead on this.
??? A bit more maths homework required!