Viewing page 344 of 507

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM                                  355

This heliport on top of the Pan American Building may show what a downtown heliport can mean. If so, this will be one of the great breakthroughs of this pioneering experiment.

Mr. WILEY. This, again, is so important as to why New York Airways should have a chance to prove this. I think we are right on the threshold.

Senator MONRONEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Wiley, for your very helpful statement.

Mr. WILEY. Thank you, sir.
(Subsequently, the following letter was received.)

THE PORT OF NEW YORK AUTHORITY,
AVIATION DEPARTMENT,
March 18, 1965.

Re: Aviation Subcommittee hearings of March 8-11, concerning federally supported helicopter air service.

Hon. A. S. MIKE MONRONEY,
Chairman, Aviation Subcommittee,
U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce,
Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.

DEAR SENATOR MONRONEY: Upon review of the typed transcript of my testimony before your subcommittee on March 11, I note that the dollar amount of charges we make to New York Airways is incorrectly stated. The amount of total billings to New York Airways by the Port of New York Authority in 1964 which appears on line 10 on page 629 of the transcript now reads $252,000. The fault was mine, due to an error in computing the total from the components thereof. The correct total is $219,374.

For your further information, of the total sum of $219,374, $25,000 was payment of fees from previous years' operations collection of which we had deferred to assist the carrier. Accordingly, our billings to New York Airways for 1964 activities actually amounted to $194,374.

I respectfully request that the record be changed to reflect this correct data.

Sincerely,

JOHN R. WILEY.

Senator MONRONEY. Our next witness is Mr. Najeeb Halaby, the distinguished Administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency. Mr. Halaby, I am glad to have you here. I regret that the Chairman was not in attendance because of a debate that was necessary for him to engage in on the Senate floor. It is with great reluctance that I was not here when you arrived.

One of the reasons we asked you to come back was to ascertain whether the lack of proper equipment by the Chicago helicopter lines forces them to use a totally unacceptable landing field, such as Meigs Airport which is not too great a distance but is so great a distance it probably is responsible for the very low volume of traffic that Chicago Airways generates from downdown to O'Hare and to Midway Airports.

STATEMENTS OF NAJEEB E. HALABY, ADMINISTRATOR FEDERAL AVIATION AGENCY

Mr. HALABY. Mr. Chairman, we do not have an application from Chicago for the use of the Grant Park Heliport. The way that works is that, as in New York, the local authority develops the need and obtains all the authorization from the local authorities.

For example, in New York it is required for a building to be built, then a planning commission to rezone, then the Marine and Aviation Authority, the Fire and Police Department, and other local authorities to approve a prosed site. Then they come to the FAA.