The South African Air Force was an early operator of helicopters. The first Sikorsky S-51 was delivered in August 1948. The S-55 followed six years later in 1956. Here is the SAAF Museum's preserved A5 seen at AFB Swartkop in August 1991. It was destroyed in a crash in Johannesburg on 2 May 1995. Photographer unknown

The Southf African Air Force was an early operator of helicopters. The first Sikorsky S-51 was delivered in August 1948. The S-55 followed six years later in 1956. Here is the SAAF Museum's preserved A5 seen flying at AFB Swartkop in October 1993. It was destroyed in a crash in Johannesburg on 2 May 1995. Photographer unknown

DND photo.

DND photo.

In poor visibility, the pilot landed on the Varkenoord football pitches near the Feyenoord stadium. He continued to the Katshoek heliport without his passengers, so customs officers dutifully sped to this site. The groundskeeper complained it was the third helicopter landing on his turf already but then it was a designated alternate landing ground. Photo by: Cock Tholens / Stadsarchief Rotterdam

A new and deadly strain of flu emerges in China, and a pandemic spreads... in 1957. A vaccine was developed in the United States by the summer, and here the first doses are being rushed to LGA airport by helicopter from the Lederle Labs in Pearl River. Photo by: Walter Sanders / Life

Location should be the West 30th Street Heliport, which New York Airways used before 1960. Photo from: Smithsonian Institution

Igor Sikorsky arrived from his Bridgeport, Connecticut factory in style for a luncheon. Sikorsky chief test pilot Jimmie Viler flew a display. The landing spot is now occupied by the Museum of Science's parking garage. N410A was apparently used as a demonstrator and was delivered to the Argentine navy in 1959. Photo by: Edmund Mitchell / Boston Public Library

Another shot of OO-SHA, seen this time at the Lille heliport near Flandres railway station. The Brussels - Lille helicopter service was first flown on 5 August 1953. Photo from: Sabena

Brussels - Rotterdam was one of the first scheduled inter-city passenger helicopter services from September 1953. OO-SHD was with Sabena from January 1954 until April 1956 when it went to the French air force as 55558. Postcard, my copy stamped on 30 September 1955.

Probably photographed in the Gulf of Mexico, N737A was delivered to PHI on 1 September 1954. By April 1961 this machine was operating with Autair Helicopters in the Canadian Arctic as CF-MYV. Photo from: United Aircraft

Delivered to LA Airways in May 1953. Photographed by Gary Vincent as C-FUNT in 1980. Photo by: Loomis Dean / Life

Photographer: Daniel Ruhier

'National Airlines' seven-passenger Sikorsky S-55 is shown here landing at the new heliport set up adjacent to the Miami Beach Municipal Auditorium.' One of the few big US airlines to try the helicopter, National started a short-lived service between Miami, Miami Beach, Bal Harbour, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, and West Palm Beach in February 1954. Flying magazine also reported daily flights between Miami Beach and Hialeah. Information is hard to find, but this heliport's location could be worked out from the Shelbourne South Beach hotel in the background with the Raleigh Hotel on the far right.

Early big business helicopter hovering over The Point, at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River. The Manchester Bridge was blown up in 1970. Before buying North American Aviation in 1967, Rockwell only made industrial valves, gas and water meters, power tools and two-stroke engines. N405A to P&W Canada as CF-HNG in 1954. Photo by: Paul Slantis / Historic Pittsburgh

'Hunting for uranium, copper, lead and other metals is made easier and quicker with a new electromagnetic detector developed by Newmont Mining Corp. and engineered by Philadelphia's Aero Service Corp. The detector consists of two coils mounted on fore and aft booms on a Sikorsky helicopter. The front coil transmits a tuned electrical signal as it flies over the survey area. The metals cause disturbances in the signal, which are picked up by the rear coil. The aircraft covers more terrain in a day than foot-slogging ground crews do in months.' Photo from: Temple University Libraries

Difficult to read, the reg looks more like N739A than N738A and, while the latter was an S-55, it does not seem to have served with LA Airways. The 1950s LAX tower is seen and, together with the tail of Convair 880 N826TW which shows in the original photo, probably dates the photo in mid-1961 before the modern airport west of Sepulveda Boulevard opened. N739A was returned to Sikorsky in 1963 and sold to the Argentine navy. Photo from: Greg Gayden

Los Angeles Airways served a heliport near The Pike in Long Beach - note the roller coaster. Photo from: Vertical Flight Society

Landing at the Disneyland Heliport in Anaheim, behind the TWA-sponsored Rocket to the Moon attraction. The heliport was moved a short distance south soon after this photo was taken and then to the west side of the park in 1960. Photo from: Vertical Flight Society