The tail rotor lift percentage is approximately

• A. 1%
• B. 2.5%
• C. 4%
• D. 6%

Answer: (B)

The tail rotor’s job is to counter the main rotor’s reaction torque, not to contribute significantly to lift. Since the main rotor does most of the lifting, only a small amount of thrust from the tail rotor is needed to keep the helicopter from yawing. In typical UH-60 operations, that anti-torque requirement is a small fraction of the main rotor’s lift, about 2.5%. So the tail rotor lift being around 2.5% of the main rotor lift best reflects how little is needed to balance torque while the main rotor does the heavy lifting. Options suggesting much less or much more anti-torque thrust would not match how the aircraft actually distributes lift and torque during hover and low-speed flight.