In the 1940s and 1950s, Chicago was home to an experimental helicopter airway system, part of an effort to integrate helicopters into urban air transport. The system, known as the “Chicago Helicopter Airways,” operated along designated flight paths that hovered above the city’s lakefront and major highways, aiming to connect downtown with airports and suburban areas. It became one of the few helicopter services in the U.S. to establish a scheduled passenger route. However, high operational costs, limited passenger demand, and the emergence of more efficient transportation modes led to its decline by the late 1960s, ultimately leaving the ambitious project as a forgotten chapter in Chicago’s aviation history.
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IT’S HISTORY – Weekly Tales of American Urban Decay as presented by your host Ryan Socash.
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My grandmother grew up with the Bi planes in the 20’s and saw the down of monoplanes in the Second World War to the jets of the 60s and 50s with the computers of the 1970s and late 60s with rocket ships reaching the stars all the way till 2016 when she passed away but being able to see the modern fighter jets
Didn’t one crash into the pan am building in nyc?
Socash, you have the best content and presentation on the interweb!
Hair cut dude. 😉 You lifting at the gym?
Father was a mech. for a while when they flew the mail.
I loved helicopters as a kid in Chicagoi watched as the S58s flew over my house daily. Those helos were loud and that gave my ample time to get outside and see them pass over. I grew up to become a helicopter mechanic and pilot. I got into gyroplanes (gyrocopters) I joined a Chicago club and still fly 50 years later
To answer your question. Yes, per the FAA, every aircraft that lands has to have at least a walk around visual inspection after each flight and, of course, a thorough inspection after a certain amount of flight time! That no inspection thing would never fly these days! Pun intended! Lol
P.S. Thank you for your great content!
I was fortunate enough to get a ride when I was a wee lad and old enough to remember it. Rode between all 3 Chicago airports
FYI, love all your videos but your gorgeous hair is cut. Will get used to it.
Love the new haircut Ryan!
We need a video about the 100,000 Americans that are murdered each year with all the fentanyl coming into the USA from china, through Mexico, then through the dem open border. As a licensed A&P I can say I would much rather fly in a fixed wing aircraft than a helicopter any day……. Really
I flew on Chicago Helicopter Airways charter helicopter flights in the early 1960s with the West Suburban YMCA in LaGrange during summer vacation. Their gate area at Meigs Field was like something out of "The Jetsons," very futuristic and it looked out on the lake. We flew all over the lakefront and downtown and between Meigs, Midway and O'Hare Airports. It was a lot of fun, the staff was very nice and I'll always remember it.
🤔 WAIT just a cheese-induced-stroke of a minute! You paid FIFTY DOLLARS in Chicago for ONE SLICE of deep-dish pizza?! You done been had, son!
This mode of transport is still far more sane than using the empire state building in NYC as a passenger and freight zeppelin airport !
That haircut looks good on you ! The content on this channel is always interesting
I worked for Digital Equipment Corporation DEC. We had a regular Helicopter service that ran from Headquarters at The Mill in Maynard to Logan Field in Boston. Employees and their families could use it to get to Logan free of charge if space was available.
It depends on the types of flight operations.
I'm a former aircraft refueller, airport maintenance officer and aircraft maintenance general hand. I'm also a former volunteer firefighter.
Aircraft, both fixed wing and helicopters, conducting fire fighting operations can go all day without even shutting off their engines.
I was trained to do hot refuelling (with the aircraft engines still running) and almost exclusively that's how they refuelled.
They'd land, communicate how much fuel they wanted to me, I'd fill them up and get clear before they took off again in under 5 minutes.
Ground crews will take drinking water and simple meals for lunch to the aircraft.
Occasionally, the pilot might jump out beside the aircraft to urinate (the smaller helicopters run a crew of two, a pilot and an observer. The observer may not be a pilot, but they know enough to hold the controls stationary on the ground whilst the pilot steps out).
Even when they did shut down, vary rarely did I see much more than a quick pilot walk around before they fired up again.
But, shutting down for the night (they are only allowed to fly during the day under visual flight rules, given the low level, close quarters nature of their work) meant that the mechanics could go ham on the aircraft.
This could be as varied as a single mechanic doing a thorough inspection for a few hours to flying to a maintenance hanger for the night and having a team of mechanics rip the aircraft apart for major inspections and put it back together ready for the morning.
The larger helicopters (think Aircranes) have a team of mechanics follow each individual aircraft with a support truck / trailer that is basically a mobile workshop and parts storage. Those helicopters also have their own fuel tankers assigned to follow them.
Whilst there have been a number of accidents, considering the nature of their work and the amount of hours they fly their safety record is actually very good.
Helicopters from university of Michigan medical center flies over my house to and from accident scenes etc. it’s loud and fast different than those old copters I think they have three sitting on a pad close to medical center. I’ve watched them maintain over there.
Wow! I always thought the autogyro was one of the progenitors of the helicopter.
Helicopter is made up of two words. Helico and pter
Latin ennit.
Did you join up to get that new haircut?
😂
Oh god, they gave the robot taxis in SF control over their horns. And now they're working on permitting "electric air taxis" and rules for that at the FAA. Granted, that's for pilot training guidelines but still. Eventually, giant robot flying taxi people movers. Beware. And always watch the skiiiiiis!-… i mean "Skyeeeeeez!"…
Don't miss our special episode on the history of Chicago Deep Dish Pizza ➡https://youtu.be/WASs9SlZxEg?feature=shared
The decades of the latter half od the 20th century saw some really cool, innovative tech – helicopters flying to city centre, giant hovercraft carrying passengers and cars across the English Channel at record speeds, Concord soaring across the Atlantic. When I was a kid I saw these and thought the future stuff would be even more amazing! So much for that! Stlll waiting on my personal jetpack!
As a Brit, thank you for great American history, which is far better than the big bits of history seen on the TV channels 👍🏻
Keep the unusual coming.
Very interesting and informative. I live in Milwaukee and remember me and mom flying out of O’Hare in 1976. I swear that there was a helicopter service from O’Hare to Midway because I saw the terminal and a chopper coming in. Perhaps one of the airlines tried to make a go of it? As for CHICAGO HELICOPTER AIRWAYS, it seems like it should have thrived into the present. Neglect and other unfortunate circumstances did it in.
HIS HAIR NEW STYLE WOAH
Ryan, have you done a story on the Chicago River and how they changed the direction that it flows? I think that would be very interesting and just learned this fact yesterday.
An ambulance ride from Farmington, Iowa to Keosauqua, Iowa (17.7 miles to the ER entrance) is $1,000.00, not counting any care one receives during the ambulance ride….this is ground transport, mind you.
One of those old S58s still flies out of s base in Willowbrook Illinois. I don't know what they do or where they go but they always fly at a low attitude. I heard that is in case they need to make an emergency landing. I am old enough to remember the old Chicago Helicopter Airways back in the 1950s and 60s.
Los Angeles Airways was my familys experience. Father, Uncle Aunt – Sikorsky S-51, S-55, S-62, S-61… All over Southern California, The 1st IFR operation too. 3 of us kids are Helicopter pilots, I've got 8 years flying the S-58.
A daily inspection is done before the 1st flight of the day and peek at everything between jobs (lift work for me) No need to look at every stop. Scheduled inspections the norm. pressurized BIM = Blade inspection Method made losing blades impossible.
45+ years flying fixing helicopters
You Tube unsubscribed me from your channel. But I am back 😂
I remember the helicopter taxi between Midway Airport and O'Hare back in the 60s. I was surprised when they quit because you would think that the high rollers would always have a desire for this service.