Charter helicopters could ease commute
By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY
With airline shuttles in a muddle, Steve Walker is betting choppers will be the topper.
Walker, a helicopter charter operator, is planning to start flying 12 round trips a day between New York and Washington with helicopters next fall. He thinks it will be the nation''s first major intercity helicopter service.
Technology has evolved to the point that one large helicopter now can cost-effectively transport passengers up to 300 miles. Although he says he would start with smaller choppers, Walker has his eye on the 19-seat Sikorsky S-92. He''s negotiating to fly the $15 million behemoths by 2004.
Between traffic congestion on the way to the airport, navigating security and waiting in terminals, flying jet shuttles between New York''s LaGuardia and Washington Reagan National has become a four-hour ordeal, Walker says.
Sikorsky S-92
Passenger seats: 19
Cruising speed: 151 mph
Max. altitude: 15,000 ft.
Range: 439 nautical miles.
With helicopters, he says, he can save travelers two hours. They will be ferried between the Wall Street Heliport in South Manhattan, about a mile from the World Trade Center site, and South Capitol Street heliport in Southeast Washington, about two miles from the Capitol.
Walker''s company, America Rising, has approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for scheduled flights. But it is still raising more than $12 million in capital needed and negotiating with the government over use of the heliport a mile from the Capitol.
Unrestricted round-trip tickets would cost $800. The flight is 90 minutes each way. US Airways, which along with Delta provides hourly jet flights between New York and Washington, charges $454.50 for unrestricted round trips.
Walker says he discovered the time savings first hand.
He''s a former computer scientist who built a successful software business, then sold it in 1998. He bought a beach house on Maryland''s eastern shore and found helicopters are the fastest way to travel between Washington and Baltimore.
I am challenged by creating a new mode of transportation, he says.