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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0646.PDF
640 FLIGHT, 22 May 1953 (Left) Over the Van Wyck Expressway en route for the International Airport. The cloverleaf fly-over is a fine example of modern American highway engineering. (Right) The Mid-town Manhattan skyline; it is in this area that the proposed roof-top landing sites will be erected to serve the Mid- town East-side and West-side. CITY and SUBURBAN HELICOPTERS Americans seem to prefer the term "heliports"—on Manhattan Island itself. Roof-top landing sites are planned to serve the Mid- town East and Mid-town West areas. One hehcopter landing site has already been installed by the Port of New York Authority on the roof of their 16-story headquarters building in downtown Manhattan. The Port Authority, who control the airports, operate their own Bell helicopters, quite distinct from the services of New York Airways. The roof-top site is in daily use for their machines, speeding personnel between headquarters and the out lying airports. Other uses to which the Authority's helicopters are put include traffic observation and photographic assignments. In addition to its roof-top site, the heliport on the East River dock was also installed by the Port Authority and may be incor porated as a stopping place in New York Airways schedules. With the fleet of Bell machines which has been in service with the New York Police Department for a number of years on patrol and rescue work, helicopter traffic is rapidly becoming an accepted part of everyday life in this area. New York is now the world's fourth capital city to be served by a regular hehcopter service on a comparatively large scale. The others are Los Angeles, Chicago, and Brussels. The practical implementation of the earlier proposals in this respect gives considerable weight to the American expectation that "hehcopter operations will reach substantial volumes in inter-city transporta tion by i960." The "64-dollar question" which is now waiting to be answered is : will British European Airways extend the scope of its present experimental helicopter freight service between London and Birmingham, and so make London the fifth capital city to enjoy such facilities on a practical scale? SOUTHEND SHORT CIRCUIT MOST readers will be aware by now that the National Air Races this year (June 20th) are to differ consider ably from the events organized in the past. A foretaste of what may be expected was provided late last season by the short-course closed-circuit races run at Shoreham on September 13th last year. Reproduced here is the official map of the 1953 National circuit at Southend Airport. It has been so planned that spectators at the airfield will have the best possible view of the aircraft at all times during the race. It will be a simple matter to follow progress without reference to handicap or class. The short distance involved for the races also has the advantage of reducing competitors' costs. Last week the 36 entrants for the three preliminary races—run according to speed classification—were named. The first four (British) competitors in each contest will then fly for the King's Cup in the final race, which is also, of course, a handicap event. The distances for each of the short legs of the rectangular course are indi cated on the map of the airport area. Some picturesque names appear on the course for the National Air Races. SPIUH WOOD
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