The Collaborative International Dictionary
main rotor \main rotor\ n. (Aviation) The assembly of large rotating airfoils (blades) on a helicopter that produce the lift to support the helicopter in the air.
WordNet
n. rotor consisting of large rotating airfoils on a single-rotor helicopter that produce the lift to support the helicopter in the air
Usage examples of "main rotor".
Pitt crouched behind a stone building and peered around a corner, hearing the growing whine of the turboshaft engines and seeing the five-bladed main rotor slowly increase its revolutions.
Adams felt the cyclic get mushy as a single bullet nicked a control rod to the main rotor.
When there was sufficient power to the main rotor, the pilot released the rotor brake, flickered a switch, and hauled over the handle of the clutch which engaged the drive to the main rotor.
The clatter of the engine stopped with a final cough, the tail rotor spun briefly in neutral, and the main rotor blades completed a few awkward revolutions and then drooped to a halt.
The Iranian Mil-8 cargo/anti-submarine warfare helicopter, a rather round, squat, bug-shaped machine with twin tails and two sets of main rotor blades counter-rotating on one rotor mast, showed up perfectly in the CV-22's imaging infrared scanner, and they maneuvered above and to the left, out of direct sight of the helicopter's pilot.
The missile exploded on the Mi-24 gunship's left engine intake, and the force of the explosion followed by the complete destruction of the left engine caused the Mi-24's main rotor to fly off in a cloud of fire.
The engines were housed in the top of the fuselage below the main rotor and formed the humpback that gave the machine its nickname.
The noise from its turboshaft engines increased as the Hind came closer, and the massive five-bladed main rotor beat at the air, stirring up the volcanic dust that coated everything on the plateau they had just left.
No sooner had the aircraft's main rotor stopped turning than a squad of Marines surrounded it.
There was enough room behind the main rotor blades to accomplish that.
The only real concern they had was a five-to-eight-second period when the airman or the cable above him was directly behind the main rotor.
He dove toward the Hinds, blasted one from the air with his cannon Six Pack, then sheared the main rotor off another one.