What type of fuel is used in helicopters?
Do they use Aviation Turbine Fuel (jet fuel), which is used widely in commercial airlines?
Also, where would be the fuel tank located in a helicopter?
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2$\begingroup$ Commercial airlines typically use Jet-A/1 $\endgroup$ – Rhino Driver Nov 28 '14 at 3:42
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It depends on the engine. A piston engine will use avgas (aviation gasoline) or diesel (or Jet-A for availability reasons) depending on whether the engine is a diesel engine (which can burn jet fuel), while a turbine engine will use jet fuel. Essentially whatever the engine is rated to burn.
The fuel tank is somewhere in the fuselage near the center of the rotor. This to avoid the center of gravity shifting with the fuel level.
answered May 27 '14 at 9:11
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1$\begingroup$ A Diesel helicopter? I've never heard of such a thing. $\endgroup$ – Gabe May 27 '14 at 16:13
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$\begingroup$ @Gabe: Looks like some work has been done in that area, though: wired.com/2010/02/… $\endgroup$ – Fred Larson May 27 '14 at 16:54
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2$\begingroup$ How long before we have helicopters parked on off-ramps overnight... (couldn't resist. :) $\endgroup$ – CGCampbell May 28 '14 at 12:59
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2$\begingroup$ wired is hardly a credible source for helicopters! there aren't any certificated diesel helis $\endgroup$ – rbp Jan 1 '15 at 21:41
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$\begingroup$ Besides, aviation diesels burn Jet-A anyway. $\endgroup$ – UnrecognizedFallingObject Jan 29 '15 at 1:46
