Why don't people use helicoptors as every day transport?
Discussion
I hope this will stay in the lounge and I know I'm not up on the reasons why not but the following struck me last week :
I spent a couple of days driving into central london from Twickenham and even though the roads were quiet (despite the tube strike) it took two hours to get to Monument (17 miles)
I'd imagine a cab would take similar from Heathrow and charge what? £60 or £70 I suppose and it got me thinking.
Why can't you board a HELICOPTOR at Heathrow (and other busy points say Gatwick, Staples Corner, Gallows corner etc) and go to the City, land on a tall building helipad and be there in 10 minutes.
Are there Helicoptors that can carry 50 people? and if there are could it be economically viable as I think at £50 a person people would pay it, I know there would be all sorts of logistics and legislation to overcome but could someone put the kybosh on this as to feasibility or not?
I spent a couple of days driving into central london from Twickenham and even though the roads were quiet (despite the tube strike) it took two hours to get to Monument (17 miles)
I'd imagine a cab would take similar from Heathrow and charge what? £60 or £70 I suppose and it got me thinking.
Why can't you board a HELICOPTOR at Heathrow (and other busy points say Gatwick, Staples Corner, Gallows corner etc) and go to the City, land on a tall building helipad and be there in 10 minutes.
Are there Helicoptors that can carry 50 people? and if there are could it be economically viable as I think at £50 a person people would pay it, I know there would be all sorts of logistics and legislation to overcome but could someone put the kybosh on this as to feasibility or not?
While i agree with all of the above of reasosn why they are not used I still notice that in the UK we utilise them a lot less than foreign countries.
In the US I see them zipping all over the place.
In Sao Paulo I noticed heavy use of them as well.
Is it just general UK fuel/insurance costs etc that prevents people from using them?
In the US I see them zipping all over the place.
In Sao Paulo I noticed heavy use of them as well.
Is it just general UK fuel/insurance costs etc that prevents people from using them?
Noise. Yes they are noisy but they still are used. i don't see that as a reason not too at all.
Capacity. A very quick google brings up choppers with a capacity of 90 people. Could you develop bigger ones as well?
Frequent crashes. Are they an unsafe form of flying statistically/ i'm not so sure.
So has it ever been put together as a business plan and seen how the numbers stack and are there FAA rules preventing it.
Anther point on capacity is that a chopper with 90 on board getting people over a 2 hour road journey in 10 minutes (a cab would have what, 1 or 2 in it0 would be a huge reduction in pressure on the road network surely.
I'm playing a bit devils advocate but I'm intrigued.
Capacity. A very quick google brings up choppers with a capacity of 90 people. Could you develop bigger ones as well?
Frequent crashes. Are they an unsafe form of flying statistically/ i'm not so sure.
So has it ever been put together as a business plan and seen how the numbers stack and are there FAA rules preventing it.
Anther point on capacity is that a chopper with 90 on board getting people over a 2 hour road journey in 10 minutes (a cab would have what, 1 or 2 in it0 would be a huge reduction in pressure on the road network surely.
I'm playing a bit devils advocate but I'm intrigued.
We've invented these things called "trains" instead. They aren't as glamorous but they carry vastly more people at nearly the same speed for a much lower price. We even run them underground in cities where there isn't space on the surface. It's very clever.
Edited by Mr Will on Monday 10th August 11:34
A little 2 seater R22 is supposedly similar running costs as family car per mile, but you do less miles as you fly direct, however they were specifically designed to cheap to operate.
Return flight to Lundy is over £100, so about £6500/hour for the aircraft, whcih is a bargain compared to the £24,000/hour quoted for operating a chinook.
Return flight to Lundy is over £100, so about £6500/hour for the aircraft, whcih is a bargain compared to the £24,000/hour quoted for operating a chinook.
In the 50s you could get a helicopter from Heathrow to Waterloo / South Bank, no joke:
http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2012/02/03/the-yea...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo_Air_Termina...
Unfortunately they needed somewhere to build the Royal Festival Hall complex so it ended.
Probably impractical now, too many tall buildings and temporary cranes going up and down all the time, helicopters make a bit of a mess when they crash, and they're flipping noisy. Also the complications that there would be at LHR, threading the heli flights through the jet flight paths? You could drive 15 mins from LHR to somewhere like nearby Fairoaks Airport that does have heli facilities but in the same time you could have been driven quite far into West London.
I think when I first went to Copenhagen many years ago, they had a thriving helicopter shuttle across the water to Malmö in Sweden, until the bridge opened and it wasn't needed any more. So there have certainly been helicopter shuttles in some places in the past. Have to ask why New York doesn't have something, they have a couple of helipads on the former docks at the bottom of Manhattan, and it takes flipping ages to drive there from JFK in the traffic or to get the public transport so would seem ideal, I guess it is just too expensive for normal people.
http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2012/02/03/the-yea...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo_Air_Termina...
Unfortunately they needed somewhere to build the Royal Festival Hall complex so it ended.
Probably impractical now, too many tall buildings and temporary cranes going up and down all the time, helicopters make a bit of a mess when they crash, and they're flipping noisy. Also the complications that there would be at LHR, threading the heli flights through the jet flight paths? You could drive 15 mins from LHR to somewhere like nearby Fairoaks Airport that does have heli facilities but in the same time you could have been driven quite far into West London.
I think when I first went to Copenhagen many years ago, they had a thriving helicopter shuttle across the water to Malmö in Sweden, until the bridge opened and it wasn't needed any more. So there have certainly been helicopter shuttles in some places in the past. Have to ask why New York doesn't have something, they have a couple of helipads on the former docks at the bottom of Manhattan, and it takes flipping ages to drive there from JFK in the traffic or to get the public transport so would seem ideal, I guess it is just too expensive for normal people.
Mr Will said:
We've invented these things called "trains" instead. They aren't as glamorous but they vastly more people at nearly the same speed for a much lower price. We even run them underground in cities where there isn't space on the surface. It's very clever.
Sarcasm isn't helping mate. A tube from Heathrow to the city will take well over an hour. 
The average driver is bad enough when only using 2 dimensions. Being tightly controlled on direction and speed to a point where they hardly have to do anything. Can you imagine the carnage that would ensue from helicopters flying where they wanted with no lanes to stick to, or signpostes to remind them not to do anything stupid? They'd be banging into each other left, right, up, down and all over. You'd have Helicopters falling out of the sky like leaves in Autumn!
Thankyou4calling said:
Capacity. A very quick google brings up choppers with a capacity of 90 people. Could you develop bigger ones as well?
Anther point on capacity is that a chopper with 90 on board getting people over a 2 hour road journey in 10 minutes (a cab would have what, 1 or 2 in it0 would be a huge reduction in pressure on the road network surely.
90 people would come with 90 rollie suitcases (or bigger Anther point on capacity is that a chopper with 90 on board getting people over a 2 hour road journey in 10 minutes (a cab would have what, 1 or 2 in it0 would be a huge reduction in pressure on the road network surely.
) and an age of waiting while they faff about trying to jam them in an insufficient quantity of lockers, just like any airline these days!I think it would have to be kept small scale for that reason.
Fairey had the same thoughts in the 50's and came up with the Rotodyne
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Rotodyne
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Rotodyne
Thankyou4calling said:
Mr Will said:
We've invented these things called "trains" instead. They aren't as glamorous but they vastly more people at nearly the same speed for a much lower price. We even run them underground in cities where there isn't space on the surface. It's very clever.
Sarcasm isn't helping mate. A tube from Heathrow to the city will take well over an hour. I'm surprised too. All I hear about living in London is that house prices are crazy the roads are congested, the tube when it's running is full of other people etc... It must be a nightmare every day. So instead of spending millions on a 2 bed bedsit why not get a country pile and commute in by helicopter.
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