New York Airways  Sikorsky S-61L  N307Y   (c/n  61-222)

                                 
      
                                     For the occasion of the New Yorks World's Fair in 1964, NYA received three S-61Ls from United
                                     Aircraft Corporation, parent company of Sikorsky.  Flights were then inaugurated from JFK Airport
                                     to the top of the Pan American building in mid-town Manhattan, in addition to the shuttles from Newark
                                     and La Guardia.  By that time Pan American was flying its own shuttle type helicopters and so NYA
                                     allied itself with TWA, hence that carriers logo on the rear fuselage of the S-61L seen above,  Mean-
                                     while, public outcry at the amount of subsidy funds being  received by the helicopter airlines plying the
                                     skies of  Los Angeles,  San Francisco, Chicago and New York reached a  fever pitch and the subsidies
                                     were eventually cut.  Nevertheless New York Airways remained profitable for many years. Unfortunately,
                                     on 16 May 1977 the landing gear on one of its its Sikorsky S-61s failed just as it was taking on pass-
                                     engers at the Pan Am building, resulting in the death of four passengers, plus the dumping of debris on to
                                     the streets below.   This, plus soaring fuel prices resulted in the airline filing bankruptcy on 18 May 1979.
                                     The heliport on the roof of the Pan American building was never reopenend.