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PORT AUTHORITY-WEST 30TH STREET HELIPORT IS DEDICATED - 6
"We are proud to announce at this propitious moment that we have entered into a joint-fare arrangement with Pan American Airways which will enable Pan American passengers to fly direct from any point in the world to 30th Street. Early next year we expect to complete similar arrangements with many other great air lines. Under this joint rate the cost to the passenger for the helicopter flight from International Airport to midtown Manhattan will be not more than $4."
Mr. Cummings said that he believed that forty to fifty passenger helicopters would be flying from the center of Washington to the center of New York in the not too distant future in a little less than an hour and a half at a fare of about $18. He said that in England today there is a helicopter under construction called the Fairey Rotodyne that may prove to be the answer to helicopter requirements. But even without this improved aircraft, Mr. Cummings predicted, by 1965 a million passengers a year will be flying between mid-Manhattan and the airports and communities in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Construction of the $320,000 heliport began on July 2, 1956. The area leased from the City includes a strip of land 70 by 400 feet along the bulkhead and the United States Pierhead Line, which is about 500 feet off-shore at that point. The heliport comprises two touchdown pads, each 80 by 80 feet, projecting 40 feet out from the bulkhead. These landing pads are constructed of reinforced concrete, with the portions beyond the bulkhead supported on steel H-piles.
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