People often ask us: “Is it a helikopter or a vertolit?” In Ukrainian there are two words for a helicopter, and the short answer is that they mean the same thing. The word gvyntokryl is broader than it seems. Let’s take them one by one, without dry theory, and with what we know from practice.
Vertolit and helikopter are synonyms
Both words name the same aircraft: a main rotor above the cabin creates lift, so the machine takes off vertically, hovers in the air and lands on a small pad. There is no technical difference between a “vertolit” and a “helikopter”; the difference is only in where the word comes from.
- Helikopter is the international word. It came from French (hélicoptère) and goes back to the Greek words for “spiral, screw” (helix) and “wing” (pteron). That is also where the English word helicopter comes from.
- Vertolit is usually explained through the Ukrainian verbs “vertity” (to spin) and “litaty” (to fly): the name recalls the rotation of the main rotor in flight.
Both words appear in the Air Code of Ukraine. Article 1 uses «вертольотів» (a form of “vertolit”) in the definition of a vertodrome, while Article 44 on airworthiness uses «гелікоптерів» (a form of “helikopter”) when speaking of the maximum take-off mass. So the law uses both names too.
A gvyntokryl is a broader term
In Ukrainian aviation rules a gvyntokryl (English: rotorcraft) is an aircraft kept in the air by one or more rotors. The helicopter is its best-known kind: every helicopter is a gvyntokryl, but not every gvyntokryl is a helicopter. There are other types too, for example the gyrodyne, whose rotor is driven by an engine for take-off and hovering while a separate propulsion system pushes it forward, sometimes with a wing. Such machines were built to combine vertical take-off with higher speed in level flight, but they never became widespread.
So in the text of the rules the word “gvyntokryl” can mean an ordinary helicopter too, and that is correct. But when talking to passengers we say “vertolit”: it is clearer and more precise.
Why we say “vertolit”
In our texts, on the website and when talking to passengers, we always say “vertolit” in Ukrainian. The reason is simple: it is the clearest word, used both by pilots and by people flying for the first time. “Helikopter” is correct as well, but we chose “vertolit”.
By the way, we also avoid unnecessary aviation jargon when talking to passengers. For you it is simply a helicopter that you will be able to fly in over Kyiv once flights resume.
What we fly
Our flights are on the Robinson R44, one of the most widely used civil helicopters in the world. It has four seats: the pilot and up to three passengers. More about the Robinson R44.
Would you like, once flights resume, to see a helicopter not in a picture but from the inside, with a headset, the pilot beside you and Kyiv under your feet? Here is how a first flight goes and all the routes, from 7,599 UAH for the whole helicopter, up to three passengers.
In short
- Vertolit = helikopter. One machine, two words.
- Gvyntokryl is a broader term: it covers helicopters and other rotor-supported aircraft, including gyrodynes.
- We say “vertolit”, and both pilots and passengers understand it at once.
Flights are temporarily suspended due to martial law, so we are not selling anything or accepting payment right now. Leave a certificate request, with no payment and no obligation, and we will let you know first, as soon as flights resume and we open sales. The certificate will be valid for 6 months from the date flights resume.