DHL launches LA helicopter parcel service
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DHL launches LA helicopter parcel service
And it was only 32 years ago DHL did this in the UK with a JetRanger on a regular late afternoon run from a barge heliport to a field by the Hotel Ibis on the Bath Road boundary of Heathrow... Check post 1859 on the Rotor Nostalgia thread
plus another photo from Airliners.net
plus another photo from Airliners.net
and that Jet ranger served Concorde..
And do you know WHY DHL offered the service in the 80’s? They had this product called “Cash letter” that guaranteed same day delivery close of business day London-New York. Cost per letter (around 100 gram as I recall) was around the $1,000 mark and the average load was up to 500 kg.
The kicker? The contents were of course bank cheques at anywhere from $50Mill to $300mill each. And if they did not make it they offered consequential loss insurance so they paid the days interest on the amount.
To do this they had Star helicopters Jet ranger G-BAZN at the London end. Concorde in the middle and N7DD Long ranger from Kennedy to Wall Street heliport.
The middle bit, Concorde, was a staff job as the documents were ‘baggage” and thus could get expedited clearance- but there had to be someone flying and that was how I got to ride Concorde more than a few times. I tended to go for the Friday night departure and for each flight I waited at the Concorde check-in at LHR until about 2 minutes to departure. Then the crew literally ran in with the bag consignments and gave me the master manifest as carry-on. No chance of any other baggage other than a change of shirt. I was always last passenger on and after that it was the fantastic Concorde experience. I won’t detail all of it now but my one abiding memory is the smell of the cabin- the leather, perfume and aftershave combining into sheer unadulterated wealth.
On arrival I cleared immigration and with luck the Long ranger had not departed so I could hitch a lift in front (no seats in rear) to Wall Street via the Verrazano Narrows bridge route- underneath the bridge. At Wall Street about 20 vans were waiting for various deliveries and I set off for dinner in Soho, all night at various jazz clubs and a subsonic return on the morning Pan Am.
There was also another cash letter service linking Paris and Frankfurt to New York which went through the Brussels hub and then on a dedicated Kingair to Frankfurt for the overnight LH freighter but this ran to different guarantees.
At one stage we seriously considered leasing a Concorde just for expedited products. We calculated a payload of around 12,000kg if we stripped a Concorde and the business plan made sense although the Eastbound return offered no major advantages. We did try at least to discuss the matter with Air France but the “Non” that reverberated into our ears left no room for uncertainty.
Aah!.... DHL in the 80’s- it wasn’t so much a job as a way of life. Before of course our friends at DBP.
The kicker? The contents were of course bank cheques at anywhere from $50Mill to $300mill each. And if they did not make it they offered consequential loss insurance so they paid the days interest on the amount.
To do this they had Star helicopters Jet ranger G-BAZN at the London end. Concorde in the middle and N7DD Long ranger from Kennedy to Wall Street heliport.
The middle bit, Concorde, was a staff job as the documents were ‘baggage” and thus could get expedited clearance- but there had to be someone flying and that was how I got to ride Concorde more than a few times. I tended to go for the Friday night departure and for each flight I waited at the Concorde check-in at LHR until about 2 minutes to departure. Then the crew literally ran in with the bag consignments and gave me the master manifest as carry-on. No chance of any other baggage other than a change of shirt. I was always last passenger on and after that it was the fantastic Concorde experience. I won’t detail all of it now but my one abiding memory is the smell of the cabin- the leather, perfume and aftershave combining into sheer unadulterated wealth.
On arrival I cleared immigration and with luck the Long ranger had not departed so I could hitch a lift in front (no seats in rear) to Wall Street via the Verrazano Narrows bridge route- underneath the bridge. At Wall Street about 20 vans were waiting for various deliveries and I set off for dinner in Soho, all night at various jazz clubs and a subsonic return on the morning Pan Am.
There was also another cash letter service linking Paris and Frankfurt to New York which went through the Brussels hub and then on a dedicated Kingair to Frankfurt for the overnight LH freighter but this ran to different guarantees.
At one stage we seriously considered leasing a Concorde just for expedited products. We calculated a payload of around 12,000kg if we stripped a Concorde and the business plan made sense although the Eastbound return offered no major advantages. We did try at least to discuss the matter with Air France but the “Non” that reverberated into our ears left no room for uncertainty.
Aah!.... DHL in the 80’s- it wasn’t so much a job as a way of life. Before of course our friends at DBP.
One small correction, the New York LongBox was N7DQ and used to look like this
and has been repainted (following Deutsche Post takeover/merger) like this
Here's the JetBox TIMTS refers to...
but does the future lie here....?
and has been repainted (following Deutsche Post takeover/merger) like this
Here's the JetBox TIMTS refers to...
but does the future lie here....?
