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HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM 343

four helicopter operators has ever been built with Federal money, and that is the only application that we have had. 

Senator MONRONEY. Let me ask you another question.

Mr. HALABY. That is Paterson, N.J.

Senator MONRONEY. We have Mr. Fred Belen who we must hear before noon. He is scheduled to appear before my Oklahoma colleague in the Appropriations Subcommittee of the House at 1 o'clock. He will need a little recovery time, I think, before he goes before Mr. Steed's committee.

I would like to ask why you didn't see fit to allocate any of the vast amount of funds we give you for air traffic control to installing the system for the instrument flying of helicopters. It is my understanding that the financing of this entire amount had to be by local concerns, although the Decca system is well established as one of the prime systems, I believe, in Europe. 

Mr. HALABY. Yes, sir; I will give you a very quick answer to that. We would not normally let a contract to a British firm to install a navigation aid in New York. Nor did we need to. They offered, through a subsidiary in the United States, to install this for both marine ships approaching New York, which now use the Decca chain, and for aviation purposes. 

We have spent over a half-million dollars in evaluating the suitability of this British system in the New York area. 

There are two world publicized navigation systems: VOR/DME, approved by ICAO in 1959, by a vote of about 15 to 14. The Decca system, for navigation, was not approved. They have been selling it very hard all around the world and they have at their own expense installed it in the New York area. It works. 

We also have VOR/DME navigation service in the New York area. If Mr. Masden and I were flying from J. F. Kennedy Airport into this famous Pan Am helipad today, we could navigate off the Idlewild VOR and the DME to a position over the Pan Am heliport, and assuming the visibility were in the order of half-a-mile to a mile we would find it. And if we had, say, 1,300 feet of ceiling, we could come in and land. 

There is also a Decca chain. A few airplanes of New York Airways, who prefer Decca, where it is available at little cost, can operate on the Decca chain. I think it is fair to say it is a little more precise. But both are acceptable and usable. 

In one case we installed it with Federal money, with a U.S. contractor. In the other case the British installed it. 

Senator MONRONEY. My dear sir, radar also happened to be a British instrument and was developed through their help. If something is improved electronically, I hope that it will be the purpose of the FAA to keep an open mind and check one against the other and see which is the best. Both being equal, then obviously we wish to buy American. If our American system, like VOR/DME might prove to be obsolete, and there is a new system being devised that could be better, it is up to your engineers, specialists, and experts to so advise the Congress. 

I think it is crystal clear that the British system or any other system perhaps at least deserves careful study. We have to measure our equipment against others. But with the freindly, free nations of the

Transcription Notes:
Freindly [[friendly]] is misspelling in the original document and the transcription