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392 HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM Chapter 111 PRESENT ROLE OF VERTICAL-LIFT AIRCRAFT IN COMMERCIAL AIR TRANSPORTATION AND THE OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE Present Concept of Vertical-Lift Operations The use of vertical-lift aircraft in commercial air transportation is now limited to the transportation of persons and property by helicopter between conventional airports and heliports located in business and residential areas and between conventional airports in metropolitan areas having a multi-airport complex. At the present time, the role of vertical-lift aircraft in the US transportation system is to provide expedited service on the intracity (or airport transfer) portion of an intercity or international air journey. The concept of expediting the intracity portion of an intracity air journey is a new one. Although our air transportation industry as a whole is generally considered to be young, in comparison with other US transportation industries, the helicopter industry is, literally, an infant; other parts of the air transportation industry appear well-matured by comparison. The infant helicopter industry was born, insofar as passenger-carrying capability is concerned just about the time that our trunk-line and international airlines had arrived at a stage in their economic life where they could survive without external assistance in the form of Federal subsidy. It is as a result of this attainment of economic self-sufficiency on the part of the older and more mature elements of the air carrier industry that increased emphasis has been placed upon the reduction of Federal assistance to all forms of air transportation. For the helicopter industry, therefore, it is unfortunate that its economic achievements as an infant industry have been judged in a period when older and more mature elements of the air carrier industry had already proven, after a long period of development, their economic self-sufficiency. Historically, however, it could have happened no other way. The trunk and international carriers achieved economic self-sufficiency only after a period of growth in air traffic and the development of economical equipment. The very factors which accounted for this traffic growth = population growth, increased personal income and buying power, the recognition of the role of air transportation as a vital link in the economic network of the nation- have now created conditions of air and surface congestion which call for further and more advanced applications of the capabilities of air vehicles. It was necessary, therefore, that intercity travel by air reach a certain stage of development before there was any need to consider ways and means of expediting the surface portion of an air journey. Also, the more advanced applications of air transportation required technological capabilities that were beyond those of conventional aircraft and it was necessary that transport technology advance to a higher level before the new capabilities were available. The role of the present helicopter carriers must be viewed, therefore, in the context of providing services which are required as a result of the advance in air transportation as a whole. Just as conventional aircraft have brought the advantages of traveling by air to the city-airport to city-airport, or line-haul portion of a passenger's journey, helicopters now bring the advantages of air travel to the city-airport to city center, or feeder portion of that journey. And it is the growth and advance in air transportation as a whole which has created the need for expedited service on this feeder portion of journeys by pushing the city airport out to areas which are more remote from the actual points of journey origination and destination. If the role of the present helicopter carriers are to be considered in relation to the future air transportation needs of the nation, it is necessary to view their present service as a component in the whole task of expediting travel by air over the entire segment from point of origin to point of destination. Otherwise, we may see time-savings achieved on the line-haul portion of the journey, dissipated by delays arising from surface congestion on the feeder portion. Air transportation has grown because it has offered time-savings and convenience to the user; there is no reason to consider these advantages as applying only to the airport-to-airport portion of a journey when it is possible to bring the advantages of air transportation to the entire city-center-to-city-center segment.
