rainbow-colored S-61Ns between the two cities. Later named Trump Air, after real estate tycoon and casino developer Donald Trump, the service acquired a jet-black commercial Chinook. The brief shuttle service was that civil helicopter’s last hurrah as a people hauler.

Air traffic from New York up to Boston and down to Washington, D.C., in airspace called the Northeast Corridor, prompted the establishment of an IFR route structure exclusively for rotorcraft. Expectations were high, but progress in establishing the interface with fixed-wings were abruptly interrupted by the air traffic controllers’ strike in 1981. The route structure was little used during the 1980s.

Perhaps the mission that most blossomed during the decade was emergency medical service (EMS). The American Society of Hospital-Based Emergency Medical Services (ASHBEAMS) was formed in 1980. The missionone of the worst hotel fires in U.S. history, at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand in November 1980. But rotorcraft plucked 370 persons from the burning hotel’s rooftop, marking one of the most successful helicopter rescue operations. And in January 1982 a U.S. Park Police LongRanger lifted five survivors of an Air Florida flight, a Boeing 737 that plunged into the icy Potomac River in Washington, D.C.

A collision of a JetRanger and Twin Otter over the Grand Canyon in 1986 dramatically impacted the expanding helicopter sightseeing market in the U.S. The incident, plus noise complaints among hikers and campers seeking a pristine environment, drew congressional legislation restricting sightseeing flights over several national parks.

Not all monumental events affecting the rotorcraft industry were disasters. In September 1982, Ross Perot Jr. and