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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0103.PDF
23 January 1953 101 U.S. CIVIL HELICOPTER OPERATION A Monumental Report Summarized - - by OUR AMERICAN CORRESPONDENT ON reading the aviation Press, both British and Ameri can, one gets the impression that the Americans are going ahead faster with the acceptance and develop ment of the helicopter as a commercial vehicle than are the British. Yet there are frequent warnings here that unless the U.S. manufacturers and operators watch out the same thing will happen in the rotating-wing field as has happened in the case of jet transports—despite the fact that the Korean war has forced the United States to makes strides with helicopter development which would normally have taken ten years or so to achieve. The Air Force, Navy, Marine and Army helicopter-programmes have enabled vast sums of money to be allocated to this work. The Army alone has a $2oom programme for helicopter development, 75 per cent of which will be devoted to machines with a payload of 6,000 lb or so, while 10 per cent will go towards the development of a really large machine capable of carrying 20,000 lb, the balance being allocated to aircraft with payloads of 2,500 lb or less. Yet in the American civil-helicopter field it seems questionable whether there has been the constructive thought and forward planning equivalent to that indicated by the Peter Masefield lecture or the development of the Bristol 173—despite the experience gained by such companies as Los Angeles Airways, Helicopter Air Services of Chicago and, more recently, New York Airways, all of whom have staged operations which should give an excellent background of practical experience with single-engine types. In order to overcome initial difficulties these services have been con fined to mail-carrying, but the Civil Aeronautics Board is now pre pared to grant the companies licences for passenger carrying— subject to some fairly strict conditions about routes over populated areas. Progress has not been confined to actual flying, either. As is usual in America, it has got into the statistical field as well, and the Aviation Department of the New York Port Authority has just published a 157-page report, entitled Transportation by Helicopter, 1955-1975, which is quite a document. Although the front page carries the disclaimer that the study "was prepared for the Port of New York Authority by consultants," whose views "do not necessarily reflect" those of the Port Authority, it is likely to be their bible of development for some time to come. The report itself deals with the "probable pattern of helicopter services and the requirements for helicopter landing areas in the Northern New Jersey/New York Metropolitan region." Conse quently, much of the content is of local interest, and can reflect only indirectly the possible course of helicopter development else where. At this point it might be as well to state a personal belief that while the forecasts made for the local short-haul and "aero- cab" type of operation are reasonable for great sprawling com munities such as Greater New York and Los Angeles, there is a good deal of optimistic thinking about the amount of inter-city traffic that will become available. Admittedly, such reservations apply more to the United States than to the United Kingdom, due to America's greater use of the motor car and her really magnifi cent roads; but there is obviously going to be a limit, geographic and operational, to the number of helicopter sites that can be established in and around centres of population. However many there are, some passengers are always going to have to spend time in reaching them. Moreover, any attempt to stop at all the sites which seem to be planned would slow up the journey to such an extent that it might be quicker to take a fixed-wing-aircraft service from a nearby airport—perhaps after having reached that airport by aero-cab. In the report under review, there is a summary of ten findings, some of which are perfectly self-evident, while others are of greater interest. By 1958, they say, 30-place helicopters will be available for common-carrier commercial operations, although, even then, "Despite its versatility the helicopter will require a carefully located specifically designed airstop facility"; and it will not be possible to land on any and every roof-top, "nor permit them to fly at random . . . over cities." The last three of these findings are as follows:— "(8) The potentialities of the helicopter cannot be realized widiin the time periods herein discussed unless the Federal Government is prepared to include this new aircraft in its hitherto liberal policy of aid to com mercial air transport and to include helicopter airstops in its airport aid programmes. .,. "(9) While the earliest common carrier use of the helicopter will probably be as an airport shuttle service beginning about 1955, it Has even greater potentialities in the field of short-range inter-city travel ana in the expanding area of commutation service. "(10) None of these potentialities of the helicopter as a common carrier can be realized unless attention is given prompdy to the study of actual sites, not only in the Northern New Jersey/New York Metro politan Area but in the region within a 175-mile radius, and to the design and development of airstop facilities fitted to the needs of the common carrier helicopter and the traffic it will be ready to serve." Item No. 8 is intriguing, and the consultants go into the matter of government aid more fully later on. They say, in pan:— "While the United States has depended chiefly upon private enterprise to inaugurate, organize and conduct common carrier service in inter-city transportation—and still relies largely upon that policy with regard to the carrying of both passengers and freight—nevertheless the federal, state, and local governments have each extensively assisted the initiation and growth of all forms of private transport ventures. By starting transport undertakings which subsequently were turned over to private companies; by providing, maintaining and operating such costly auxiliary transport facilities as ports, terminals, and improved ways, which are used in common by private and public carriers at less than the cost of providing such facilities; by relieving transport undertakings for long periods of time from the assumption of public tax burdens which other industries and citizens continue to bear; by using the public credit, the taxing power and the right of eminent domain to procure for private operators substantial portions of the heavy capital requirements which the early development of transportation projects require; by nurturing their growth through protective legislation, regulatory action and government patronage; by all such general types of government assistance —and numerous specific measures not embraced under such descriptions —the several levels of government in the United States have added governmental assistance to private investment and initiative in order to hasten the creation and development of transport undertakings . . ." And again:— ". . . states and municipalities over the last quarter of a century— and in collaboration with the federal government airport aid policy developed during the last five years—have lifted most of the burden of capital provision from the carriers. They have also borne a considerable portion of the annual operating costs of the airports as well." Finally, the authors conclude with the statement that:— '*... much will depend upon the policy of the Civil Aeronautics Board regarding certification of operators. Thus, in the matter of local and feeder routes, the Board has generally preferred to certificate new operators. This has apparendy been on the theory that such entre preneurs, being dependent upon the success of those operations for their own survival, would strive harder to develop the traffic potentials than existing companies heavily committed to long-distance services. If this policy continues to prevail when helicopter applications are presented to that agency, with the result that development at least in early stages is committed to new operators, it is virtually certain that government assistance in large magnitude will be necessary if a rate of growth at all comparable to that of the trunk airlines is to be attained . . ." All of which puts into proper and reasonable perspective what is, and what is not, free enterprise in the airline business in the United States. But to continue with the report. It is the panel's opinion that the years 1950 to 1955 will, under the influence of military require ments, show an expansion in the payload, speed and range of heli copters. During 1956 to i960 there will probably be a continua tion of this trend, but by 1961 we are likely to see a move to simplify the complexity that always results from military influence, and in the years 1961-1975 one can expect a drive tov/ards making the helicopter a really economic and practical vehicle without TABLE I. SPECIFICATIONS AND AVAILABILITY ESTIMATE Approximate Specifications Fuselage length (ft) Overall length (ft) Width (ft) Height (ft) No. of rotors... Rotor diam. (ft) No. of engine(s) Type of engine(s)* Gross weight (lb) Empty weight (lb) Seats Payload at 50-mile range (lb) Maximum speed (m.p.h.) ... Cruising speed (m.p.h.) Cost, new ($x 1,000) Cost, modified (Sx1,000) ... Direct operating costs per available seat-mile ($) Estimated Period of Availability 1955-1960 32-42 48-55 6-9 13-16 1-2 53-35 1 R 5,500-8.000 3,900-4,800 8-10 1,400-2,000 110-115 85-100 120-140 100-120 0.09-0.10 1958-1965 50-55 80-90 14-16 15-18 1-2 53-44 2 R 11,000-15,000 7,000-12,000 15-21 3,500-3,700 135-145 115-120 165-185 150-170 0.06-0.07 1963-1970 65-80 130-140 10-12 24-27 1-2 85-80 2 R-T-J 25,000-35,000 20.000-22,000 30-40 10,000-12.000 145-160 135-145 365-400 335 up 0.04-0.05 • R— Reciprocating; R-T-J ^ Reciprocating/Turbine Pulseiet or Ramjet. Note: All cost figures are based on current price levels.
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