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304      HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM

The public need for airport-city center-satellite cities services is here today and is growing quite rapidly. To this end it is necessary to clearly define what role scheduled helicopter service is fulfilling today and what will be required in the future.

Air passengers today frequently experience surface transportation time in excess of the airtime portion of their trip. One flies in excess of 500 miles an hour and then realizes something less than 30 miles per hour average on the ground. Much of our studies indicate great impatients [[impatience]] on the part of the business and Government travelers. Consider the time savings in dollars: Using an average time of one and one-half hours for a round trip by surface means between Dulles Airport and downtown Washington for 100,000 people at a conservative payroll cost of $10 an hour amounts to $1,000,000 of lost time as opposed to one half hour required for travel by helicopter. This is gained through an increase of productivity of individuals who have the need of Dulles insofar as their journey to downtown Washington is concerned.

Strong interest has been expressed in the development of mass transit surface systems for metropolitan areas across the Nation; in some cases such programs have been implemented. There are those who state that such facilities eliminate the need for helicopter service. We take strong exception to this. As we all know, the development of high-speed expressways and mass transit systems lag by many years in meeting passenger traffic needs to and from airports. Often when construction of highways or surface transit systems are completed, at great expense to the taxpayers, they quickly become obsolete. Moreover, with development of satellite cities around metropolitan areas, consideration must be given to the cost of providing high-speed expressways and mass transit surface routes. It is not our contention that the helicopter will completely replace either or both; but the helicopter can easily and economically fill the gaps until these surface facilities are justified and constructed. Also, the helicopter can meet the needs of mass transit between airports and city centers while serving the commuting public between satellites and their downtown metropolitan centers until some form or forms of mass transit are put into operation. Granted, there may be some overlap, but we believe the helicopter can greatly complement and augment the overall metropolitan transportation picture.

The present planning policy for airports, to which the Civil Aeronautics Board is apparently committed, creates another problem-ready surface access to regional airports. Are we, of the transportation industries, to expect that ready ground access to regional airports can be assured? The problems of public needs are essentially the same and can be met in the same manner as previously discussed except that we may expect the carriage of passengers over longer distances, thereby causing satisfaction of a greater need.

One fact that exists today strengthens our argument: With the high-density development of suburban areas plus the development of transport aircraft, it is essential that an immense tract of land be available for airports. This requires the site to be of some distance from the city center, as evidenced by Dulles Airport and the sites under study by the New York Port Authority. One feasible potential that must be considered is the development of high-speed, large passenger capacity helicopters for use between cities in the area