You are saying in many ways, I suppose, just that you would like to make sure there is some recognition-in the use of the wordsthat helicopters and heliports do exist and are part of the aviation system.

Mr. RICHARDSON. That's correct. There is very little evidence of that in the way the FAA conducts their attitude toward the industry.

And, of course, a similar situation has existed for quite some time on the part of the Congress.

Mr. STUTZ. Let me comment just briefly about the FAA program, if I might, Senator.

The FAA did start under the last administrator, Administrator Bond, a limited R. & D. program on helicopter operations at the urging of the industry.

And this was a 5-year, $12 million-plus program which is underway now. But it was limited by the amount of money that they could provide within their existing budget, to look at the sum of the basic problems we have.

You find all-weather helicopter operation-and they didn't have the money to do this to identify the solutions.

We think they were very enthusiastic about pursuing this program. When we briefed them on what our requirements really were to get on to the development of the system such as we are talking about here today, we found the Administrator and his staff could not appropriate that kind of money within their R. & D. budget.

They needed a mandate from Congress in order to spend the kind of money on R. & D. helicopter development we are going to need if we are going to see the system emerge.

Senator KASSEBAUM. I don't think they would need a mandate from Congress. It would be their own determination of their budget needs.

In other words, what I suppose they were saying is that they would like more money.

Mr. STUTZ. Well, what we are saying, as Administrator Bond said to me, was that if you have an $80, $85 million budget, and you are asking for several million of that-$20 million-that is far more than the share that we can see if you look at the number of helicopters, compared to the number of other civil aircraft.

In other words, somebody has to tell us that we need a startup position here on helicopters, that we are going to spend the kind of money to start this program up.

Somebody has to tell us to do this. We can't tell ourselves to do this. It is too big a share.

Just like somebody had to tell the Congress in the 1930's that they needed to spend a lot of money, appropriate a lot of WBA money, and they did, for building city airports by the hundreds all over the country.

Without that kind of fostering, and that money was spent, in the 1930's and 1940's, particularly the 1940's, far beyond the then level of airplane activity. It was very primitive in the 1930's.

Without that money and that fostering, nothing would have happened in the way of developing our airways and airplane system.

That is what we need. That is what we are saying. We need that now. We are ready for it.

We have the kind of aircraft technology that we can do a useful service, if we get that kind of fostering.

Senator KASSEBAUM. I certainly can appreciate what you are saying.

I would think it would be something that the major airports would be really very willing and interested to work with you on. Because in many ways, I think, from the perspective of the major airports and the needs they serve, the heliport is almost in the same category as a reliever airport and will become, I think, increasingly important to our transportation system.

We appreciate your testimony very much. We will certainly take under consideration the issues you raise and appreciate very much your patience in waiting to testify.

Mr. RICHARDSON. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman.
Mr. STUTZ. Thank you.

[The statement follows:]

STATEMENT OF ROBERT A. RICHARDSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HELICOPTER ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL AND RICHARD G. STUTZ, CHAIRMAN, Heliports and AIRWAYS ACTION GROUP, HELICOPTER ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL

The Helicopter Association International (HAI) formerly named the Helicopter Association of America is an international independent organization of over 800 companies and individuals engaged in manufacturing and operating civil helicopters. This includes all of the U.S. manufacturers and most of the U.S. operators. HAI member services are for hire, public corporate and private transportation and public service.

HAI members operate in the field of agriculture, airlines, air-taxi, construction, executive transport, law enforcement, energy exploration, rescue, logging and in many other civil applications.

The purpose of HAI is to represent and promote the helicopter interests of its members to the public, government, industry and the news media.

The U.S. civil helicopter industry is the fastest growth element of civil aviation. During the past ten years this growth has averaged over 12 percent per year, three times all of civil aviation. In 1980 the industry employed over 75,000 people in manufacturing and operating. It manufactured over 1,000 helicopters and operated over 9,000 aircraft in the United States and Canada alone. Gross revenue of 1980 was well over one billion dollars. By 1990 the fleet is projected to reach over 20,000 helicopters with annual industry revenue more than three billion 1980 dollars. HAI attributes no small part of this spectacular helicopter industry growth to the demand for transportation for the exploration of oil, coal and other energy sources offshore and in remote areas such as Appalachia and Alaska. Helicopter operations also spread quickly to new application in urban areas as well. This was only possible through the development of modern technology helicopters in the 1970's which provided the performance and economic basis for this growth. These helicopters featured: Design specifically for the civil market. Fuel efficient aerodynamics and propulsion. Higher payload/lower weight through new materials. Fewer moving parts/lower maintenance. Increased ride comfort/lower noise. Improved safety.

There are many examples of the contributions of our industry to the nation's commerce and welfare. These include two of particular importance today.

ENERGY EXPLORATION

A helicopter transportation system for energy exploration has rapidly emerged off the Atlantic Coast, Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico. In the Gulf alone over 8,000 people and associated equipment are moved to energy production sites daily by helicopter. No other transportation can provide this service safely or efficiently. One Gulf operator transports more people than the most active U.S. commuter airline and owns more aircraft than nearly all of the world's largest air carriers.

PUBLIC SERVICE

Although about one-sixth of the civil fleet are permanently assigned to public service roles in government agencies, far more are pressed into serivce during emergencies. Most recently these helicopters provided invaluable rescue and relief services during Hurricanes David and Frederick and for the Swedish cruise ship evacuation. In the two hotel fires in Las Vegas, helicopters rescued over 300 victims, blew smoke away from and fresh air to other victims, and transported hundreds of firefighters and their equipment about the buildings.

It is difficult to assess the economic value of services, particularly human services, provided by helicopters but HAI used data provided by NASA to estimate current annual economic benefits in the United States, Figure 1.

Unfortunately, however, the ongoing services or advanced technology helicopters can provide the general public are severely limited today by the lack of public-use heliports and associated connecting airways. This frequently restricts the services we can provide to only good weather and relatively isolated areas when the need may be more frequently in poor weather and congested areas. Table 1 shows the distribution of public-use heliports among the 25 largest metropolitan areas in the United States. These areas have a population of over 75,000,000 people or one-third of our population. They are a primary target for developing helicopter transportation services because they offer the biggest opportunities to provide point-to-point transportation with greatest potential fuel and time savings and congestion relief. They incorporate the busiest airports in the United States, most needing reliever airports, of which heliports are outstanding examples. Only 11 of these metropolitan areas have public-use heliports, only four of these are recognized in the National Airport System Plan, and none of these are equipped for all-weather operations. The only discrete helicopter airway in the United States runs from Washington, D.C., to Boston, Massachusetts. On December 28, 1979, a helicopter flew from New York City's Wall Street Heliport to Washington in one hour and eleven minutes and from Wall Street Heliport to Boston in just over 59 minutes. No airplane system could compete if these destination cities had downtown public-use heliports; however, neither city has such a heliport.

TABLE 1.-DISTRIBUTION OF PUBLIC-USE HELIPORTS AMONG 25 LARGEST CITIES IN THE UNITED

Today our one helicopter airway permits almost direct flights between major cities in the Northeast Corridor. However, in the New York City area only nonprecision approaches to and departures from the five Manhattan Island heliports can be made. In addition, there is inadequate radar surveillance and radio communications for safe air traffic control in inclement weather. In 1980 over 125,000 operations were conducted to these heliports. This is one third that of LaGuardia which is in a terminal control area with full air traffic services. The helicopter traffic is also increasing much faster than airplane traffic at LaGuardia.

The VORTAC line-of-sight airplane navigation system which helicopter operators must use in the National Airspace, requires them to fly at altitudes frequently higher than most efficient for helicopter operations in terms of fuel consumption and mission time. In remote areas such as Alaska and Appalachia where helicopter

transportation is vital, and offshore, there is no appropriate low level navigation system at all. The operators need a nationwide low altitude system that will permit them to provide their unique transportation services in congested, remote and offshore environments regardless of the weather. This is why HAI is a supporter of civil application of the NAVSTAR Satellite Navigation System.

An important reason why so little has been done to develop and implement the helicopter transportation system is that there was not Federal guidance or direction for its consideration in the Airport and Airways Development Act of 1970. Furthermore, ten years later there was still not such direction or guidance in the Administration's proposed ADAP renewal bill, H.R. 3745, or the Senate's proposed S. 1648. No State's aviation plan contains any direction or guidance. In fact, the words heliport or helicopter airways don't appear in these documents. The implication that heliports are airports and helicopter airways are airplane airways in these ADAP renewal proposals will continue to result in city planners' either completely ignoring the role of helicopter transportation or applying airplane/airport criteria, such as noise criteria, to downtown heliports. Nothing, of course, could be less appropriate.

To provide for the needed legislative support for helicopter operations development in ADAP renewal, HAI conducted a compaign with the 96th Congress with the following results:

H.R. 6721 reported out of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee defined reliever heliports and reserved at least $10 million for reliever heliport grants.

H.R. 6571 markup by the Senate Finance Committee excluded certain helicopter operations in energy exploration and agriculture from the payment of the fuel tax. The HAI respectfully requests that the Subcommittee on Aviation incorporate these provisions in S. 1648.

The HAI also requests that the Subcommittee on Aviation reserve $20 million in fiscal year 1982 R. & D. funds for the development of civil applications of NAVSTAR Satellite Navigation System, all weather heliports and helicopter airways, and all weather helicopter certification standards.

Finally, the HAI requests that the Aviation Trust Fund be separated from the Unified Federal Budget. This will expedite its use for the purpose for which it was established-airport/heliport development capital expenditures for airways and air traffic control facilities and R. & D. and demonstration of associated projects. The Helicopter Association is here today to seek the same kind of fostering for emerging helicopter transportation that Congress gave airplane transportation in the 1930's. Without such fostering we would not have the national aviation transportation system growth and services the public needs in the future.

[Whereupon, at 1:27 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]