Created in the 1960s as the helicopter came into maturity as a transportation method, this fascinating Sikorsky film promotes the use of ‘copters to supplement the transportation system and use the broad highway in the sky — to reduce traffic congestion on the highways and eliminate gaps in efficiency. Chicago and Honolulu are shown — where helicopters perform critical taxi service — as well as cities in Europe where helicopters have been employed with great success. A large portion of the film is devoted to the activities of Los Angeles Airways, a helicopter airline based in Westchester. Los Angeles Airways offered services to area airports as well as Disneyland (shown at the 00:05:50:00 mark) from Los Angeles International Airport and the heliport at the Newporter Resort, Newport Beach, California, now the Hyatt Regency. LAA had several firsts, including the first regularly scheduled helicopter mail service on October 1, 1947.

In April 1957 they scheduled 17 weekday departures from LAX to 11 heliports from North Hollywood to San Bernardino to Santa Ana to Long Beach; they didn’t fly to downtown Los Angeles.

LAA was the first civil operator of the Sikorsky S-61, introducing it on March 1, 1962 for a price of $650,000 each.

Los Angeles Airways ceased operations in 1971 after failure to consummate a contract in which it would have been purchased by Golden West Airlines.

Passengers boarded, in thousands, scheduled flights only: 30 in 1957, 39 in 1960, 396 in 1967, 62 in 1970.

The IBM 402 Accounting computer appears at the 00:06:55:00 mark, where it is shown being used to make reservations.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2K. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com