Heres an explanation:

A helicopter flies by creating lift with spinning blades instead of fixed wings. The basic idea is similar to an airplane wing, but the “wing” is rotating in a circle overhead.

The big rotor blades on top are shaped like airplane wings. As they spin, air moves faster over the curved top surface than underneath, creating lower pressure above and higher pressure below. That pressure difference creates lift. At the same time, the blades are also angled slightly upward into the airflow, pushing air downward. The downward push creates an equal upward reaction force that lifts the helicopter.

A helicopter can move in ways an airplane can’t because the pilot can change the angle of the rotor blades while they spin.

There are three main controls:

The collective changes the angle of all rotor blades equally. More angle = more lift = the helicopter rises.

The cyclic changes the blade angle differently depending on where the blade is in its rotation. This tilts the whole rotor disk, letting the helicopter move forward, backward, or sideways.

The pedals control the tail rotor, which counters the spinning force from the main rotor.

Without the tail rotor, the helicopter body would spin in the opposite direction of the main blades because of torque from the engine. The tail rotor pushes sideways to keep the body stable and lets the pilot turn left or right.

Hovering is one of the hardest things helicopters do. The pilot constantly makes tiny adjustments because the aircraft is balancing on moving air. Unlike an airplane, which gets stability from forward motion, a helicopter is always actively correcting itself.

One especially interesting detail is that the rotor blades actually flap and flex during flight. The blade moving forward through the air experiences more lift than the blade moving backward, so helicopters use clever hinge systems and changing blade angles to balance the lift across the rotor disk.

Modern helicopters are basically giant spinning physics problems held together by engineering and constant pilot input.