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SHELL OIL COMPANY
50 WEST 50TH STREET
NEW YORK 20, N.Y.

April 27, 1967

Mr. Robert L. Cummings
President and Director
New York Airways Station
Flushing, New York 11371

Dear Mr. Cummings:

As you know, there are many urban areas in both developed and emergent countries where, for national prestige or commercial reasons, the respective governments will be considering the establishment of helicopter airline services.

Despite extensive press coverage of helicopter activities, however, we have not yet seen a clear statement by the leading airline officials that outlines the fundamental economic considerations and operating problems of scheduled helicopter services. It's not that excellent reports have not been written, but that most of these have been addressed to political aspects of the situation or to a specific technical problem, such as IFR certification.

For many years SHELL AVIATION NEWS has tried to provide a useful information service for the air transport industry. Accordingly, we regularly invite experts in airline operations to write about their specialty in the magazine. Helicopter services, of course, are among the major topics covered. Typical examples of this, which I have taken the liberty to enclose, are the attached articles by senior members of Helicopter Service A/S and BEA Helicopters Ltd. in issues 337 and 338.

As you'll note, both articles deal with contract operations, about which a wealth of material is always available. Needless to add, we could readily fill every issue with developments in the military field, which is currently active and extensively publicized. Scheduled operations, however, rarely receive the coverage they deserve, and we must admit that our own publication is no less at fault than others are.

Consequently, we wondered whether any of your senior executives might be interested in writing a piece for us about New York Airways' operating experience. Certainly no other helicopter airline has pioneered in so many areas of scheduled operations, and undoubtedly a very worthwhile study could be developed for our international audience.