New York Airways (NYA), one of the first three helicopter carriers certificated by the United States Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), began mail service between New York City's three major airports in October 1952, and inaugurated the world's first regularly scheduled passenger helicopter service in July 1953. NYA soon extended mail, freight, and passenger service into the greater New York City metropolitan area, extending routes into New Jersey and Connecticut. As ground traffic in the New York area became increasingly congested, NYA, based at LaGuardia Airport, worked closely with the Port of New York Authority to establish heliports on the island of Manhattan, most famously from the rooftop of the Pan Am Building, from which NYA inaugurated regularly scheduled passenger service on December 21, 1965. Despite its best efforts, NYA depended heavily on government subsidies for its economic health, and was plagued by financial issues throughout its lifetime. In June 1965, as subsidies were being eliminated, NYA entered into operating support agreements with Trans World Airlines (TWA) and Pan American World Airways, whose connecting passengers were some of NYA's biggest customers. NYA, already suffering from rising fuel prices, ceased operations in April 1979 following a fatal accident at Newark International Airport, and filed for bankruptcy the following month in May 1979. Richard Wheatland II joined New York Airways in January 1953 as the Manager of the airline's Traffic and Sales Department, and soon became NYA's Vice President of Sales and Service. He left the company in 1968 to take a position in his native home of Boston, and died peacefully at his home on June 26, 2009. Note: Please do not describe the images, photographs, or maps that appear in this project. We are only seeking transcriptions.
The collection is divided into two series (Series 1, 1992 Accession; Series 2, 1973 Acquisition) and includes a variety of material, probably collected by Richard Wheatland II during his tenure with New York Airways (NYA). The material reflects the administration of the airline and many of the activities of its president, Robert L. Cummings, Jr., as well as its dealings with organizations such as the Air Transport Association (ATA), American Helicopter Society, Bell Helicopter, Eastern Air Lines, the Grand Central Building, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Pan America World Airways (Pan Am), the Port of New York Authority (PONYA), Sikorsky, Trans World Airlines (TWA), other organizations interested in helicopter operations, and the federal government. In addition to administrative correspondence, memoranda, proposals, employee operations manuals, speeches, and reports, there are also a large number of manuscripts and publications, clippings, timetables and other ephemera, and a small number of photographs. NYA's fleet included the Sikorsky S-55, Sikorsky S-58, Bell 47H (used for charter work), Vertol V-44 (civil version of the Piasecki H-21 Workhorse), Boeing-Vertol Model 107, and Sikorsky S-61L and S-61N models. The collection contains materials relating to these aircraft and helicopter operations in general as well as other vertical flight and short take off and landing (STOL) aircraft. The collection includes material on the other two helicopter carriers, Los Angeles Airways (LAA) and Helicopter Air Services (HAS) of Chicago, as well as the later San Francisco & Oakland Helicopter Airlines (SFO), and other international, national, and local airlines. Also included are a large number of materials directly relating to air transportation and urban planning issues in the New York City metropolitan area, particularly those related to the airports it served: Newark International Airport, Teterboro Airport, LaGuardia Airport, New York International Airport, Anderson Field ("Idlewild," later renamed as John F. Kennedy International Airport) and the Manhattan heliports. Series 2 contains more of Wheatland's personal notes on various topics, and also includes materials on topics of general business executive interest such as public speaking and management techniques.