The Aviation Historian — January 2018

70 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN Issue No 22

with any Sabena Belgian World Airlines flight,

the fare was $2. The airline went on to negotiate

inter-line agreements with other international

and domestic carriers serving SFO and OAK,

arrangements which were vital to the company’s

profitability and which were to some degree a

form of subsidy, but from the airlines instead of

the government. Business was brisk; according

to a 1962 newspaper article, the firm was

carrying 19,500 passengers per month, more

than any other commercial helicopter service in

the world. The airline claimed that its helicopters

were less noisy than the trucks being driven on

the busy highways in the area.

The US Post Office granted SFO Helicopter an

airmail contract in 1962 to carry mail between

Oakland and SFO and Berkeley and SFO, a

newspaper article reporting that SFO Helicopter

was operating a fleet of three S-62s. At the

end of 1963, service was terminated at JFO

(Downtown San Francisco Heliport), the Port of

San Francisco Authority ruling that “the facility

is structurally unsafe for continued [helicopter]

operation”. On February 1, 1964, SFO Helicopter

inaugurated a service to Marin County Heliport

(JMC), north of Sausalito, and in July 1965 the

company extended its network to Palo Alto

Municipal Airport and San Jose Municipal

Airport, as originally intended.

Later that year, a service was inaugurated

to Contra Costa County Heliport (JCA —

designated “Lafayette” on the company’s route

map), taking the company to the peak of its

The terminal building at the Downtown San Francisco Heliport

(JFO) at the Ferry Building on The Embarcadero in January

1968. Originally opened in February 1950, the heliport was
      closed in late 1963 owing to structural concerns, but was
      used for SFO hovercraft services during 1965 and reopened
      for helicopter operations after refurbishment in 1967.

THE WORLD’S FIRST purpose-built amphibious

helicopter with a boat-type hull, the S-62

prototype, N880 (BELOW), first flew on May 22,

1958. Powered a 1,050 s.h.p. General Electric
      CT58-110-1 turboshaft engine, the type could carry
      up to 11 passengers. Its cruising speed was 85kt,
      with a maximum speed of 95kt. Maximum take-off
      weight was 8,300lb (3,765kg). SFO Helicopter
      operated a total of four S-62As, registered N323Y,
      N978, N975 and the prototype, N880. EB

SIKORSKY S- 62 : THE FIRST AMPHIBIAN

TAH ARCHIVE

COLLECTION OF SFO MUSEUM