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DHL uses helicopters to deliver to downtown L. A.
The service provides aerial movement of time sensitive financial documents and packages from Los Angeles (LAX) international airport to downtown Los Angeles for several large banking clients. (www.verticalmag.com) 更多...
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This is a better IDEA than Amazon flying UAV's.
they have been doing it in NYC for 30 years
What goes around, comes around...Los Angeles Airways began mail and package delivery from LAX to the downtown postal annex in 1947. Not sure how many years that lasted but as a kid I remember seeing their Sikorsky S-55's flying back and forth across L.A.
Before 9/11 there were courier flights that could deliver documents faster than a heli link to downtown. One could get a ticket to or from Hong Kong for $200 or less, just without luggage privileges.
Electronic banking and currency destruction at the source has soured that. Legit courier companies are all but gone, and for those that remain ticket prices are within a couple of dollars of a consolidator.
Couriers were faster because of the slow customs clearance for cargo.
What makes this heli service work is the failure of local and state politicians to keep the traffic infrastructure current with the population. In the 1970's travel times from LAX to downtown were half or less than the present snail crawl.
Just as the FAA sits on a mountain sized pile of cash for enhancement of aviation facilities, California electeds use the public treasure to ensure unions and special interest groups vote for them. As long as they retain power to feather their own nests, the public interest, convenience, and necessity will be damned.
Electronic banking and currency destruction at the source has soured that. Legit courier companies are all but gone, and for those that remain ticket prices are within a couple of dollars of a consolidator.
Couriers were faster because of the slow customs clearance for cargo.
What makes this heli service work is the failure of local and state politicians to keep the traffic infrastructure current with the population. In the 1970's travel times from LAX to downtown were half or less than the present snail crawl.
Just as the FAA sits on a mountain sized pile of cash for enhancement of aviation facilities, California electeds use the public treasure to ensure unions and special interest groups vote for them. As long as they retain power to feather their own nests, the public interest, convenience, and necessity will be damned.
As far as traffic in Metro areas like LA, there is only so much space in a given area. More roads are not the answer. Ideas like using helo's to move documents faster is a better idea than building more infrastructure which will fill up as fast as you build.
In Chicago, the opposite occurred when Mayor Daley Jr. tore up Meigs Field, removing the only way to access aviation from a major location of commerce. That is the opposite of what a governing body should be doing. Such an idea as moving express traffic via air from a hub such as O'Hare or Rockford is now impossible thanks to Daley, and is remanded to the traffic flows of I-90/I-290 - at best a nightmare.
In Chicago, the opposite occurred when Mayor Daley Jr. tore up Meigs Field, removing the only way to access aviation from a major location of commerce. That is the opposite of what a governing body should be doing. Such an idea as moving express traffic via air from a hub such as O'Hare or Rockford is now impossible thanks to Daley, and is remanded to the traffic flows of I-90/I-290 - at best a nightmare.
