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TABLES PERTAINING TO COSTS OF OPERATION

The tables relating to direct aircraft operating expenses give the derivation of direct operating expense of helicopter types now in production, or in advanced stages of design, and establish future estimates denoting the trend of these costs.

Table 1 provides an indication of helicopter payload capacity for past and future rotary-wing aircraft. The data were compiled from engineering releases of helicopter manu- facturers and are used in calculations relating to the trend of direct flying costs.

Table 2 sets forth in detail the formula for eight separate direct operating cost factors, modified to be consistent with helicopter engineering specifications. Each of the eight formulae utilizes one or more of 21 "constant value". The engineering symbols for each constant, together with a brief narrative description, is set forth as a part of Table 2. The next tabulation in the series, Table 3, assigns numerical values to each constant used int he modified cost formula.

Basic data to develop these values were obtained from various sources within the helicop- ter manufacturing industry and are applicable, as nearly as possible, to the time that various helicopter models have been, or will be, placed in service. Table 4 presents estimates of direct operating costs per available seat-mile resulting form the calculation required by the eight basic cost equations described in Table 2. Table 5, the next in the series, is derived from current engineering releases of helicopter manufacturers. It provides check upon the direct operating costs calculated by the staff and presented in Table 4.

Table 6 contains the computed trend of direct aircraft operating costs per available seat- mile for fixed-wing transport aircraft during the period 1929 through 1949. These data are used as a basis for projecting the probable trend of helicopter direct aircraft operating expenses and thus provide a completely independent check on the estimates in the Table 4. The fixed-wing trend gives a good basis for forecasting the trend of helicopter costs because the existing status of helicopter engineering and manufacture is roughly comparable to the position of the fixed-wing manufacturing industry in 1929. Both industries design and pro- duce aircraft. Moreover, many component parts of both fixed-wing and helicopter aircraft are similar, if not identical. it therefore appears reasonable to anticipate a degree of progress in the engineering and fabrication of future helicopters which will parallel the rate of progress demonstrated by the fixed-wing industry during the twenty-year period, 1929-1949. Applica- tion of the trend developed in Table 6 to present levels of direct costs of helicopter operation per available seat-mile, yields the projected trend set forth in Table 7, the last tabulation in the direct cost series.