The Brief History of Short-Hop Commute Pioneer Chicago Helicopter Airways

Today, companies like Uber and Hyundai or United Airlines and Archer are working to get fleets of VTOL aircraft to serve as short-hop air taxis, ferrying travelers from city centers to airports while avoiding the mess and hassle of ground-based traffic. In the ‘60s companies like Chicago Helicopter Airways (CHA) just used a bunch of repurposed US Navy helicopters whose rotors almost never catastrophically failed. Almost.

Video Transcript

- Racing to make your flight is an experience nearly as old as commercial aviation itself and one that we've been trying to solve for years. Today, companies like Uber and Hyundai or United Airlines and Archer are working to get fleets of VTOL aircraft to serve as short-hop air taxis, ferrying travelers between city centers and airports while avoiding the mess and hassle of ground-based traffic. In the 1960s, companies like Chicago Helicopter Airways, or the CHA, just used a bunch of repurposed US Navy helicopters whose rotors almost never catastrophically failed-- almost.

- Following World War II, the US government found itself with a massive surplus of military aircraft. More than 150,000 planes, helicopters, and whirly birds all needed somewhere to go that wasn't storage or a scrapyard. At the same time, an emergent middle class discovered that the American dream came with a whole lot of traffic congestion. So in the early 1950s, the federal government launched a series of grant programs to promote commuting via helicopter as an inter-city alternative to driving. It was supposed to simultaneously address both issues.

The CHA began its existence in 1948 as a regional mail delivery service operating in the Greater Chicago area but switched to carrying human passengers from 1956 to 1963. Its five-stop route moved between a home base in Winnetka, Illinois and O'Hare and Midway airports as well as Gary, Indiana. For just $5 in 1962 money, or about $50 today, travelers could get from Winnetka at the north end of the city to Terminal 3 at O'Hare and do it in under 10 minutes. Or for $11, sightseers could reserve space aboard a complete triangle flight, a helicopter tour of Chicago.

At its peak in 1960, CHA operated 126 flights and carried 6,000 passengers daily. However, that success did not last past the tragedy of Flight 698. On July 20, 1960, 11 passengers and two crew members took off from O'Hare Airport headed for Midway under clear skies. Minutes into the journey, disaster struck when the main rotor failed and came apart. The crew attempted an emergency landing but were thwarted when the tail rotor subsequently broke off, and the aircraft fell nose first into Forest Home Cemetery. It burst into flames, killing all 13 aboard.

Just three years later in 1963, the CHA's business had been halved, with just 3,000 people opting for helicopter rides to the airport. By 1966, the federal government's grant programs had run their course, and funding quickly dried up, effectively putting an end to the CHA's operations. The company attempted a comeback with limited service in 1969 but shuttered again for good in 1974.

Clearly, the issue was that the aircraft of the day only had a measly single rotor to provide lift and placed it at risk of major mechanical failure. That's not an issue with modern VTOL aircraft, such as the six-rotor Bell Nexus, which was to be used in Uber's now-defunct air taxi service. However, finding reliable funding remains a challenge even today, which has resulted in much of the technology's development concentrating amidst existing aerospace corporations.

Airbus is working on a VTOL of its own, as is Honda, while United announced plans to buy 500 units outright from Eve Air Mobility to jumpstart its own fleet. And Joby, which purchased Uber's air taxi business in 2020, just received significant investment from Delta as well. It will likely be a few more years before this new generation of short-hop commute businesses get off the ground in earnest, so be sure to download the latest episode of "The Engadget Podcast" from Apple, Google, or Spotify to give yourself something to listen to on your drive to the airport in the meantime.

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