Downdraft for the Choppers

The last three Presidents of the U.S. have given the helicopter industry its biggest boost by frequently and publicly taxiing from place to place in their whirlybirds. Having been aviation's ugly duckling for 20 struggling years, the industry finally saw some faint hope that it would win the wide public acceptance it wants. The number of helicopters in commercial use -- for everything from patrolling game reserves to lifting men to offshore oil rigs -- has risen from 936 in 1960 to 1,767 in 1964. The nation's three major helicopter lines, serving New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, last year increased their hauls 19% to 553,000 passengers. Anticipating a breakthrough, they agreed under Government pressure to the phasing out by 1970 of their $4,300,000 annual subsidy.

Last week, to the industry's astonishment, President Johnson in his budget message called the subsidy payments "undesirable" and proposed that they be cut off entirely at the end of this year.

The decision not only affects the three major lines, but dashes the hopes of applicants for subsidized routes in 39 other cities. "Kangaroo-court action," cried Clarence M. Belinn, president of Los Angeles Airways; he and other helicopter men still hope for a reprieve from Congress. Said Stuart G. Tipton, president of the Air Transport Association: "If given the proper climate of encouragement, the helicopter airlines could well expand into one of the nation's important industries, employing tens of thousands of people and requiring hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment and facilities."

Passenger Fears. The industry has a way to go. It now schedules passenger flights between downtown and airport, airport and airport, and on short suburban runs, but the lines are hampered by erratic schedules, the high cost of operation and passenger fears about safety that are hard to allay. (In the past decade, helicopter lines have carried 3,130,000 passengers with only two fatal crashes.) Every time a helicopter passenger pays $8 for a ride, taxpayers must chip in another $8 to enable him to make the trip. Still, as helicopter technology has advanced, the taxi lines have managed to cut per-seat costs from $3.68 per mile in 1954 to 32-c-.

One important innovation has been the recent development of sturdier, larger helicopters. Of the six major manufacturers, Boeing's Vertol Division and United Aircraft's Sikorsky Division are now producing twin-engine crafts with capacities of about 40 passengers. Once it gets federal clearance, New York Airways plans to begin in April Vertol-107 instrument flights from the top of Manhattan's 59-story Pan American Building. Since the new helicopters can operate at night and under the same visibility conditions required for jets, the line hopes to eliminate at least the complaint of unreliability in schedules.

Miles of Traffic. The sudden removal of Government subsidy will probably not ground the taxi lines, but it will make the industry's takeoff somewhat more difficult. There is no doubt, however, that the helicopter is here to stay. As jets force airports farther from big cities, leaving miles of increasingly congested traffic in between, necessity is likely to keep helicopters flying.

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