 | |
| Commenced operations | 1947 |
|---|---|
| Ceased operations | 1971 |
| Hubs | Westchester, Los Angeles |
| Destinations | Disneyland Newporter Resort Los Angeles area airports |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
| Key people | Clarence Belinn (president) Boyd Kesselring (operations) |
Los Angeles Airways (LAA) was a helicopter airline founded in October 1947 by Clarence Belinn [1] and based in Westchester, California, which offered service to area airports throughout Southern California. [2]
Los Angeles Airways commenced airmail service on October 1, 1947, followed by scheduled passenger service in November 1954, making it the world's first scheduled helicopter airline. The main hub was Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) where passengers were flown to and from local area heliports, including Disneyland Resort in Anaheim and the Newporter Resort in Newport Beach. Service was later expanded to Ontario and San Bernardino. [3] [4] [5] LAA's fleet grew with the acquisition of four Sikorsky S-61's in March 1962; the airline became the first civil operator of the type, at a purchased price of $650,000 each. [6] On October 25, 1965, the Civil Aeronautics Board granted LAA a permanent certificate to continue scheduled passenger airline operations over the greater Los Angeles area. This, in conjunction with their authority from the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct flights under instrument flight rules (IFR), gave the company more flexibility to operate at night and in poor weather. Even though LAA was granted certification by the CAB, the CAB ended the appromiatley $4.3 million per year in subsidiaries for LAA, because they deemed commercial helicopter service not viable. [7] The company considered obtaining the Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane, with detachable passenger sections, but failed to secure financing for the acquisition. [8] In the following years the company suffered two fatal accidents, and with the failure to consummate a contract with Golden West Airlines in which it would have been purchased, Los Angeles Airways ceased operations in 1971. [9]
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1977.
The Sikorsky S-76 is a medium-size commercial utility helicopter designed and produced by the American helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft. It is the company's first helicopter specifically developed for the civilian market.
Helijet International is a helicopter airline and charter service based in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. Its scheduled passenger helicopter airline services operates flights from heliports at Vancouver International Airport (YVR), downtown Vancouver, downtown Nanaimo and downtown Victoria. It also operates a charter division serving the film, television, aerial tour, industrial and general helicopter and corporate jet charter markets, as well as helicopter and jet air ambulance services. Its head office and main hangar is Vancouver International Airport (YVR).
The Downtown Manhattan Heliport is a helicopter landing platform at Pier 6, on the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City.
New York Airways was an American helicopter airline in the New York City area, founded in 1949 as a mail and cargo carrier. On 9 July 1953 it may have been the first scheduled helicopter airline to carry passengers in the United States, with headquarters at LaGuardia Airport. Although primarily a helicopter airline operator with scheduled passenger operations, New York Airways also flew fixed wing aircraft, such as the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 19-passenger STOL twin turboprop aircraft.
On 16 July 1983 a British Airways Helicopters commercial Sikorsky S-61 helicopter, Oscar November (G-BEON), crashed in the southern Celtic Sea, in the Atlantic Ocean, while en route from Penzance to St Mary's, Isles of Scilly in poor visibility. Only six of the twenty-six people on board survived. It was Britain's worst helicopter civil aviation accident at the time.
British International Helicopter Services (BIH), owned by Bristow Group, is a British-owned helicopter operator. It operates a fleet of ten helicopters covering search and rescue, offshore, defence, charter and flying training activities from its bases at Newquay Airport, Coventry Airport and RAF Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands.
US Helicopter was an independent air shuttle service that operated regularly scheduled helicopter flights from Manhattan to Newark and JFK airports. Flights left from Downtown and Midtown Manhattan Heliports to Delta Air Lines Terminal 3 at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). There were also flights to and from Bridgeport, Connecticut (BDR). It was headquartered at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport, Pier 6 E River in Lower Manhattan, New York City.
The Sikorsky S-61L and S-61N are civil variants of the SH-3 Sea King military helicopter. They were developed and produced by the American helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft.
Los Angeles Airways Flight 417 was a Sikorsky S-61 helicopter that crashed on August 14, 1968 in the city of Compton, California. All eighteen passengers and three crew members were killed. The aircraft was destroyed by impact and fire. According to the National Transportation Safety Board the probable cause of the accident was fatigue failure. The accident happened when the yellow blade, one of five main rotor blades, separated from the spindle that attached the blade to the rotor head. Following failure, the helicopter was uncontrollable and it fell to the ground. The fatigue crack originated in an area of substandard hardness and inadequate shot peening.
Los Angeles Airways Flight 841 was a Sikorsky S-61 helicopter that crashed at 5:50 p.m. on Wednesday, May 22, 1968, in the city of Paramount, California. All twenty passengers and three crew members were killed. The aircraft was destroyed by impact and fire. The probable cause of the accident was a mechanical failure in the blade rotor system, which then allowed one blade to strike the side of the fuselage. As a result, the other four blades were thrown out of balance. All five rotor blades then broke and the rear fuselage and tail separated from the rest of the airframe. The cause of the mechanical failure is undetermined. At the time, it was the worst helicopter-related accident in U.S. aviation history, not to be surpassed until the 1986 Grand Canyon mid-air collision which killed 25.
British Airways Helicopters, previously operating as British European Airways Helicopters Ltd, was an airline operating helicopters in the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1986. It was mainly known for providing a passenger service connecting Penzance to the Isles of Scilly, and for flights servicing North Sea oil and gas platforms.
The Piasecki H-16 Transporter was a tandem-rotor transport or rescue helicopter designed by Frank Piasecki and built by Piasecki Helicopter. The prototypes were evaluated by the United States Air Force and Army, but the crash of the second test aircraft led to cancelling the project.
The West 30th Street Heliport is a heliport on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Originally constructed by the Port of New York Authority in 1956, the facility has been operated by Air Pegasus since 1981. The heliport currently operates under a lease agreement with the Hudson River Park Trust.
The Grand Canyon mid-air collision occurred when Grand Canyon Airlines Flight 6, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, collided with a Bell 206 helicopter, Helitech Flight 2, over Grand Canyon National Park on June 18, 1986. All 25 passengers and crew on board the two aircraft were killed. It remains the deadliest accident involving a helicopter on United States soil, surpassing the crash of Los Angeles Airways Flight 841 in 1968, which killed 23 people.
Pakistan International Airlines Flight 17 was a scheduled domestic flight from Dacca to Faridpur in East Pakistan operated by a Sikorsky S-61 twin-engined helicopter of Pakistan International Airlines. On 2 February 1966 the helicopter operating the flight crashed near Fardipur after an oil leak developed and the main gearbox failed. Twenty passengers and all three crew were killed; one passenger survived.
San Francisco and Oakland Helicopter Airlines was a helicopter airline service offering scheduled passenger flights between San Francisco, Oakland, and other Bay Area cities. It was founded in 1961 but disappeared from the Official Airline Guide 15 years later before finally going out of business in 1986.
KLM Helikopters N.V. was a Dutch civil helicopter operator founded in 1965, and was wholly owned subsidiary of KLM.
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