Appeal No. 97-1114 Page 11
Application No. 08/222,643
nonproductively by airliners maneuvering to and from large
jet ports. Yet another reason and a problem generally
applicable to all air transportation is overcrowding of the
air space at airports and overburdening of the approach and
runway facilities available.
It has long been recognized that these problems could
be alleviated, if not fully solved, by aircraft capable of
operating from small urban airports which could be dispersed
closer to or within urban centers. To some extent rotating
wing aircraft, e.g., helicopters, provide this capability,
and today there art many helicopters in operation from
heliports of extremely small area, many of which are located
on the tops of buildings in a crowded urban center.
However, helicopters have limitations as to the distance and
speeds at which they are effective from a time of travel, as
well as a cost standpoint. The range limit of effectiveness
for today’s helicopters is 75 miles and the expectable
ultimate limit is in the order of 150 miles.
The really significant lack of progress has been
in aircraft which are truly effective, from a cost and
time standpoint, in operating over travel routes of
200-400 miles with the flexibility to perform
adequately over shorter or longer distances. . . .
Generally speaking, . . . [fixed-wing V/STOL
aircraft] have been capable of attaining the obvious
advantage of operating into and out of airports
requiring a very small area and capable of being
located in close proximity to urban centers. They also
have the further advantage over helicopters in that
they can attain reasonably high flight speeds and
altitudes for route distances in the 200-400 mile
range. Such fixed-wing aircraft provide the potential
solution to air transportation problems of congestion,
both in conventional airports and in land
transportation to and from such conventional airports.
Downtown airports may be scattered so that there is not
a concentration of land traffic in any one given access
area. Similarly, air congestion at conventional
airports may be decreased since several different areas
of a large airport could be set aside for simultaneous
landing and takeoff for V/STOL aircraft in the area of
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