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Connecticut. Cargo service was inaugurated the next month, night flights were incorporated into the schedule the month after that, and service to Trenton and New Brunswick was started a few months later.
Then, in July 1953, New York Airways become the first regularly scheduled helicopter passenger service in the world. The rate of growth since that time is indicated by the fact that New York Airways is now flying 141 scheduled flights a day. In the first six months of this year, it carried almost 18,000 passengers.
This growth is even more impressive when one realizes that it was achieved despite a shortage of flight equipment and with no heliports in Manhattan. But, impressive as the record is, we know that it is only a small fraction of the potential which can be realized with more helicopters, larger helicopters (such as the S-58 which will shortly go into service), and midtown heliports such as the one we are dedicating today.
In 1951, the Port Authority authorized a comprehensive study by a group of consultants to determine the volume and pattern of helicopter services in this area. The results of that study were published in 1952 under the title of "Transportation by Helicopter, 1955-1975". This study indicated that helicopters were admirably suited to provide a vastly improved type of service in three important fields: 1) on routes between cities from 40 to 175 miles apart; 2) on routes linking city centers with the suburbs; and 3) on routes linking the airports with each other and with downtown centers. The study indicated that these three types of services would result in a combined total of 5,000,000 helicopter passengers a year entering or leaving Manhattan by 1970.