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R. L. CUMMINGS Jr.   NEW YORK AIRWAYS-1962      345 

sources of revenue has become not only possible but mandatory. 

Until the appearance of the Boeing V-107, the effectiveness of the piston-engine helicopters being operated by New York Airways has been limited to an extent that has rarely been understood. Dependence on a single source of power has imposed severe and sometimes almost overwhelming handicaps. Circuitous time-consuming routings, the necessity for heavy, aerodynamically inefficient flotation gear, and high en route operating limits——all are expensive consequences of the unalterable need to land in case of engine failure. Likewise, because of the singe engine, the use of heliports in business districts or other built-up areas has been foreclosed. Thus, our revenue earning power has been restricted by the need to operate from peripheral rather than central points. 

Some time ago, in preparation for the arrival of the new equipment, a senior officer of New York Airways was assigned to the job of selecting optimum sites for future landing areas. From the beginning of operations, our company recognised that it could not meet its service obligations until it was successful in tis endeavor. related to this, comprehensive noise and turbulence studies have been carried out. Fig. 4 shows one phase of the wind tunnel work that was done in order to determine the correct design for controlling air currents on the top if a large office building now approaching completion in New York. 

After a series of tests, repeated under all possible conditions, we have concluded that, while it must be considered, the noise created by the Boeing V-107 with its buried engine installation need not constitute a disturbance which could interfere with operations. As a matter of comparison, this aircraft is noticeably quieter than our present machines. With take-off power at 500 ft., it is less audible than a modern passenger automobile travelling at 30 miles an hour and passing at a distance of approximately 20 ft.

Having satisfied ourselves (as well as a number of community representative) with respect to the noise problem, and having developed  a solution to the turbulence problem, it is now manifest that, for the first time, large, reliable, passenger-carrying aircraft, requiring minimum landing space, can be operated out of the very heart of the communities they serve. In and of itself, taken only in connection with our present services, this represents major progress. IT means that the helicopter can now perform the city centre mission which has so long been its goal.

With this work behind us, in addition to several ground level city centre heliports, there are also three rooftop heliports under construction within our operating areas. The first of these to be completed (roughly 130 ft. by 200 ft.) will be located 800 ft. in the air on the top of the new Pan American Building (Fig. 5) in the midtown Manhattan business and hotel district, immediately above the Grand Central Railroad Station and within a seven minute walk of the United Nations Headquarters. The building itself with house  25,000 workers. High speed, specially designed elevators will be capable of taking our passengers from the street level to the roof in less than 30 seconds.

Within the last several weeks, equally spectacular plans have been announced for a heliport to be located on the top of the Port of New York——New Jersey Exhibit Building (Fig. 6) in the midst of the upcoming 1964-65 New York World's Fair. By helicopter, this landing point (200 ft. square and 120 ft. in the air) will be approximately three minutes from the Pan American Building, four minutes from New York International Airport and ten minuets from the Newark Airport in New Jersey. We intend to operate services to that site on a very high frequency basis throughout the duration of the Fair, bot on a sightseeing and regularly scheduled basis in conjunction with out other services.

The third rooftop heliport now in progress is by no means as dramatic in its initial impression as the other two, but from the point of view of general, practical interest, it may be more

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FIGURE 5. Heliport on top of Pan American Building, New York.

significant since it is located on the top of a relatively low level municipal garage in the very centre of the city of New Haven (population 320,000), in the State of Connecticut. The design and location of this heliport is such that any city in the world, small or large, can readily envision adapting it as a prototype for its own purpose.

While it is difficult, if not actually impossible, to make even rough estimates of the volume of traffic that will be generated at community centre heliports, all signs indicate that there will be an impressive passenger interest even from the outset of operations.

In New Yok, city centre service carries with it not only a

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FIGURE 6. Proposed Heliport on top of the Port of New York——New Jersey exhibit building for the New York World's Fair in 1964-5.

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