The viscous, three‐dimensional flowfields of UH‐60A and BERP rotors are calculated for lifting hover configurations using a Navier‐Stokes computational fluid dynamics method, called TURNS, with a view to understand the importance of planform effects on the airloads. The solution scheme is essentially a free‐wake method. That is, the induced effects of the wake, including the interaction of tip vortices with successive blades, are captured as a part of the overall flowfield solution without prescribing the strurture or position of the vortical wake. However, the structure of the captured tip vortex is diffused by numerical viscosity. Calculated results are presented for the UH‐60A and BERP rotors in the farm of surface pressures, hover performance parameters, surface particle flow, tip vortex, and vortex wake trajectory at two thrust conditions. The results for thc UH‐60A model rotor agree well with experiments for a moderate thrust condition. Comparison of UH‐60A results with an equivalent rectangular UH‐60A blade and a high‐twist BERP blade indicates that the BERP blade, with an unconventional planform, produces more thrust at a given collective pitch, and approximately the same Figure of Merit. The high thrust conditions considered produce severe shock‐induced flow separation for the UH‐60A blade, while the BERP blade develops more thrust and minimal separation. The BERP blade produces a tighter tip vortex structure compared with the UH‐60A blade. These results and the discussion presented bring out the similarities and differences between the two rotors.