ORIGINAL: da Rock
ORIGINAL: BMatthews
Talking to a buddy that was in the full size heli industry for a while I found out that the size of the fuselage does make a difference. They were modifying some sort of Sikorsky for the heli-logging industry by shortening the fuselage by something like 4 to 6 feet. It made a difference to the load capacity being hoisted of a good few hundred more lbs of lift.
There is every reason to believe that the drag created by airflow is created whether the airflow is horizontal to the earth or perpendicular. And that drag certainly has a direction. With fixed wings, they mostly see only horizontal because that's what they see. And increase the airflow that creates lift/drag and they see more drag for sure. And we've all gotten used to and understand that drag certainly has a direction. So with a chopper, the airflow that runs straight into the fuselage on it's way down is going to create a force that lines up with the load the chopper is lifting.
Frontal area has always played a part in the speed of fixed wings.
I guess "downal area" is what we'd call the helicopter's planform view. 
looks like everyone has ferrerted out the obvious