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HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM 97 in mid-Manhattan. Service to Kennedy will be 7 minutes; LaGuardia, 4; and Newark Airport, 6. In Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, helicopter service covers the distance in less than one-fifth the time required by surface means. There is no question that the technology to make a major breakthrough in short-haul urban transportation in available. The problem, in the past, has been that the economics have been disappointing There has been progressive improvement, but it was not until the present state of the art that they were able to see a definite end of subsidy and economic self-sufficiency within 5 years. The year 1964 was a year of reappraisal for the helicopter operators. Under the probing of the Civil Aeronautics Board, they had to ask themselves many difficult questions about the economy of their services. They made a record with the Board which resulted in a recommended program to end subsidy within a special time. This program has been described to you. They went a step further. They agreed to guarantee that if this program is granted to them they would not come to Congress for any further aid. You have before you, therefore, a program beginning and an end. By 1970, the experimental phase of scheduled helicopter service will be at and end and an economically self-sustaining instrument will be available for application to the many other cities which have applied for such service. I am sure that if this committee is convinced, and if Congress is convinced, that additional aid for a brief time will result in adding a mew and useful tool to help combat the problem of urban congestion, it will grant that aid. Subsidy used as seed money to help develop new dimensions for our economy has hearty popular support. The immense problem of urban traffic strangulation can be clearly understood. The success of the technology of the helicopter in jumping over the tangle is also clear. If the economics can be made to work, then clearly Government subsidy will once again have helped develop a new industry of enormous potential. Thousands of new jobs and millions in new private investment can be predicted if this means of transport can be made to work on a national basis. What confidence can we have that this will happen? When the service began passenger service 11 years ago, more than 75 percent of the revenues of the helicopter companies came from subsidy. This dependence has now fallen to 46.7 percent for the first 11 months of 1964. The subsidy reduction trend is accelerating. Careful studies on which the CAB based its recommendations predict a reduction of subsidy to zero in five years, with very small amounts being needed in the last 2 years of the program. Are the helicopters becoming more useful to the public? Obviously, they are. In 1957, helicopter lines originated 153,000 passengers. Last year, they carried 489,643. Those are the three subsidized helicopter operators. Senator MONRONEY. Is that a substitute for the 606,000 figure you have there? Mr. TIPTON. Yes. Some of the figures in these paragraphs covered the three subsidized helicopters. Others covered the four. Consequently, in order to keep these statistics comparable----- Senator MONRONEY. That is 406,000?
