Los Angeles
Airways Sikorsky S-61L N300Y (c/n
unknown)
In 1962 Los Angeles Airways were the first
carrier in the world to put the large S-61 into scheduled
service.
My shot was taken at the same venue where I shot the S-51 some years
previously. This
machine was
the first helicopter to have the cabin formated like a regular
airliner. Accomodating, as
it did, a load
of 28 passengers at a cruising speed of some 140 mph, it resembled the
size and per-
formance
of a DC-3. Unfortunately, when Congress had O.K.'d the granting
of subsidies for the
helicopter airlines they had put a time ceiling on it. When that
time ran out, in 1965, and the subsidies
ceased, it
became obvious that helicopter airlines could not make money on their
own. To make
matters worse,
in 1968 L A A suffered the loss of two S-61s, both due to rotor
failure, and both
resulting
in the deaths of 20+ passengers and crew. N300Y was one of them.
The S-61s were
grounded
until the problem was fixed. The carrier never did overcome the
stigma of these crashes,
however,
and finally sold out to Golden
West Airlines in 1971.