Viewing page 151 of 507

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM                         143

Mr. John Kane, director and vice president and treasurer, and Mr. Steven Slade, my administrative assistant.

We have a prepared statement which has been submitted, I believe. It is going to be my suggestion, Mr. Chairman, in view of the late hour, since so much of the material in my statement has probably been developed to some extent already by other persons, that rather than read this, I should place it in the record and discuss it orally.

Senator MONRONEY. That will be good. Your entire statement will be placed in the record and you may proceed orally in any way that you choose.

Mr. BELINN. My statement is in three sections. The statement itself, and an appendix labeled "Heligram," and it is made up principally of developmental, historical material, and some statistical material, outlining the contributions made by our company from the beginning.

The second appendix contains primarily performance data relating very strongly to our relationship and our contribution to the military.

There is a third appendix which covers some of the hassles we have had with the Civil Aeronautics Board over the years, material with reference to allowances, disallowances, and so forth, which we would like to not only discuss but place in the record.

Senator MONRONEY. That will be permissible. I am going through the "Heligram," and I think because of our interest to try to make at long last a complete record of the helicopter operations, a job which we have neglected to do, I think thoroughly in the past, we will include all of this material in the record. It is a little longer than we usually would do, but I think we need to document the case in behalf of the subsidies owing to the tough situation that we face with the House failing to permit the continuation of the helicopter lines beyond January 1, 1966.

These will all be placed in the record. I find them very interesting and I would respectfully call attention of the members of the committee, and will call their attention, to this material that will be incorporated in the record, together with the drawings and the graphs.

(The documents follow:)

STATEMENT OF CLARENCE M. BELINN, PRESIDENT OF LOS ANGELES AIRWAYS, INC.

My name is Clarence M. Belinn. I reside at 12312 Viewcrest Road, North Hollywood, Calif. I am president and director of Los Angeles Airways, Inc., and have been since its formation in May 1944.

HISTORY

Los Angeles Airways, founded in 1944, was certificated by the Civil Aeronautics Board on May 20, 1947 for the carriage of property and mail by helicopter within a 50-mile radius of the Los Angeles post office terminal annex building, and thus became the world's first scheduled helicopter airline.

Originally, the consensus of all concerned, notably the Post Office Department, as the main sponsor, the CAB and the CAA, was to the effect that the Los Angeles area possessed all of the essential ingredients for the experiments——potential growth of the entire section, composed of many large industrial suburban cities located radially about the single airport theme.

Other natural elements included widespread geographical variations, with accompanying differences in climatic conditions. 

Airmail-by-helicopter service was inaugurated on October 1, 1947. The original equipment used to pioneer the routes and speed the pickup and delivery of mail through the Los Angeles area was a fleet of five Sikorsky S-51 helicopters.

In 1952, LAA purchased the larger S-55 machines, capable of carrying 7 passengers, plus baggage, mail and express. In December of 1953, the world's