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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0372.PDF
NEW YORK AIRWAYS •CMC0ULSD 388 FLIGHT, 21 March 1958 ELICOPTERS IN CIVIL OPERATIO WHY ARE SO FEW ENGAGED ON SCHEDULED SERVICES? By JOHN SEEKINGS I NEW YONK AIRWAY*. INC. T is almost five years since the firstscheduled helicopter service for pas- sengers began. In July 1953, New YorkAirways put their newly acquired Sikorsky S-55s into service between the city's three mainairports, Idlewild, La Guardia and Newark. Within two months the first European—andfirst international—scheduled service was initiated by Sabena, on a route running from Brussels to Rotterdamvia Lille and Antwerp. In November 1954 Los Angeles Airways started passenger services between the International Airport andthe heliport at Long Beach, a 12-minute flight as against an hour's drive. The following July saw British European Airways introducea service linking London Airport to South Bank alongside Water- loo Station; and in November 1956 Chicago Helicopter Airways(then Helicopter Air Services) started a passenger service between Chicago's two airports—Midway and O'Hare—and Meig's Field heliport.All these five pioneering carriers—N.Y.A., Sabena, L.A.A., B.E.A. and C.H.A.—used similar equipment, seven-seat S-55s.All five, too, had prior experience of helicopter operations, using Bell 47s, Sikorsky S-51s and (in the case of B.E.A.) Bristol 171Sycamores. To Los Angeles Airways falls the credit for the first scheduled service: they flew regular mail deliveries as far backas October 1947. B.E.A. and C.H.A. ran mail services in 1948, and in 1950 Sabena contracted with the Belgian post office todeliver mail in Bell 47s on a cost-plus basis. B.E.A. also ran an experimental passenger service with Sycamores from June 1954until May 1955. This service, between London and Southampton, carried only 986 passengers. Their scheduled service betweenLondon Airport and Westminster was equally short-lived, ter- minating in May 1956 after having being patronized by 3,800travellers. Another pioneering company, Ostermans Aero, have carried outregular mail delivery between Stockholm and various points in the neighbouring archipelago every winter since 1948. As was thecase with B.E.A., this company's passenger operations were of brief duration, a helicopter link between Sweden and Denmarkhaving been flown for a few months during 1955 with S-55s. Unlike B.E.A. and Ostermans Aero, the other four pioneershave persisted with scheduled passenger operations and are now each carrying traffic at an annual level of about l^m passenger-miles. (To put this into perspective, a single Dove would carry a like amount of traffic in a typical year's operation.) With the soleexception of Los Angeles Airways, all the airlines currently opera- ting scheduled helicopter services have graduated to larger aircraftin the form of the 12-passenger S-58. But even this has proved too small avehicle; New York Airways are in the process of replacing their Si-korsky fleet of five S-55s and three S-58s by five Vertol 44Bs. These15-seat aircraft will double N.Y.A.'s present annual seat-mile capacityfrom 2.5 to 5.0m. Sabena is also conducting evaluation tests on theVertol 44. The factor governing the heli-copter's slow development can be simply described: how heavy is theloss that can be afforded? In the U.S., where scheduled services arecertainly as intensively and efficiently operated as anywhere, total operat-ing costs are almost $7 (£2 10s) per capacity ton-mile. This compareswith under 30 cents per c.t.m. for America's domestic trunk airlines,and about 50 cents for her local- service carriers. Rotary-wing aircraft in use today are still 15 to25 times as expensive to operate as their fixed-wing brethren. The peculiar advantages of the helicopter allow passenger faresto be set at rates which would ordinarily be prohibitive. A steady fall in the average fare, from 38 to 28 cents per passenger mile, hasbeen accompanied by a rise in seat load-factors from under 20 per cent to about 50 per cent. This is still quite inadequate tocover operating costs. In the U.S., the three scheduled helicopter operators have been kept alive by mail rates averaging $30(£10 14s) per ton-mile (the domestic trunk carriers are getting 37 cents (32 pence) per mail ton-mile, while the local-service carriersget $1.53—about lls—per t.m.). These generous rates include a large proportion of subsidy. In the present financial year, C.A.B.subsidy for helicopter services stands at $4.5m (£1.6m). For the year 1958-1959 this is expected to fall to $4.1m (£1.5m). Sabenapublishes no financial results for its helicopter services, but no trouble is taken to conceal the fact that they are run at a loss.B.E.A. also lost heavily on its helicopter operations, costs over the last four years having exceeded revenue by over £lm (of whichabout three-quarters was borne by the Government in the form of subsidy). Four big helicopters—three Western, one Russian—showpromise of subsidy-free operations: the Fairey Rotodyne, West- land Westminster, a Vertol derivative and the Mi-6. If the expecta-tions of their makers are fulfilled, these aircraft will be the first to bring scheduled helicopter operations into the hard-headedworld of unsupported private enterprise. The unsuitability of the helicopter for scheduled services hasnot deterred private companies from exploiting the non-scheduled market. Against the total fleet of 37 helicopters in scheduled civiloperation (seven Bell 47s and 30 Sikorskys) about 350 are perform- ing non-scheduled services. Precise figures are difficult toestablish, but it seems that at least 200 are being operated in North America, 40 in Latin America, 70 in Europe, and 40 elsewhere.Unlike the scheduled operators, the charter companies prefer smaller aircraft. The Bell 47 is the most popular aircraft in thisfield, some 150 now being in use, while Hiller have sold about 70 civil helicopters. Sikorsky sales are less than 50. Although the typical non-scheduled helicopter operator is asmall company employing a fleet of less than five aircraft, there are—scattered around the world—a few really large-scale under-takings. The North American scene is dominated by four such companies,-Rick and Bahama in the U.S., Okanagan and Spartanin Canada. Rick Helicopters, together with their associates Alaska Helicopters and U.S. Helicopters, control a fleet of 30aircraft. Bahama Helicopters (nominally based at Nassau) are linked with Agricultural Helicopters, Armstrong-Flint Helicoptersand World Wide Helicopters; their total fleet also numbers about 30. Okanagan is based in British Columbia and, together with itssubsidiaries, United and Canadian, can claim to be the world's largest operator of helicopters, the total fleet consisting of 36 Bell47s, 20 S-55s and one S-58. Spartan's 14 Bell 47s concentrate on photographic survey. Throughout the rest of the world there appear to be only sevencompanies with over five helicopters each. Three are to be found in Latin America: Trabajos Aereos y Representaciones (13 Bell 47s)in Argentina; Aerotechnica (ten Bell 47s) in Venezuela and Helicol (six Bell 47s) in Colombia. The remaining three are in Europe,two being in France (Etablissement Fenwick and Cie. Gyrafrique, with fleets of eleven and seven Bell 47s respectively) and one inthe U.K. (Fison-Airwork, with three S-55s and six Hiller 360s). New York Airways are to re-equip with Vertol 44Bs, largest helicopter* available for civil use.
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