# How important is symmetry to plane engines?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-symmetry-to-plane-engines/532307>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 12, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-symmetry-to-plane-engines/532307 "2010-03-12T23:28:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2010, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-is-symmetry-to-plane-engines/532307/13 "2010-03-14T05:05:38Z")

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> [@rockypg](#):
>
> What is a boom chop?

Boom chop occurs when a rotor blade in a helicopter strikes the tail boom. This is suboptimal.

[R22 Helicopter Safety Notice SN-24](http://www.robinsonheli.com/srvclib/rchsn24.pdf) is the safety notice from which I got the line. The link is a ‘translated’ .pdf, so there are some spelling errors that are artifacts of the machine-transcription. It details low rotor RPM, which is one thing that can cause boom chop.

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