Aviation Vocabulary: Heliport (In Pictures)

Heliport simply refers to the landing and takeoff area for a helicopter. For visibility from the air, heliports are typically marked with an ‘H’ or a circle in concrete. Helipads can be a part of a larger airport or an aerodrome or they can exist as single entities.

The minimum distance is 10 feet (3 m) for ground operations and the greater of 10 feet (3 m) or 0.28 D for hover operations.

Heliports are categorized based on their purpose. Hospitals, for instance, have an H painted in red with a cross outlined in the background. White is painted on all other heliports.

                           

There are different types of heliports, according to Civil guidelines. Here are some types of the helicopter  

• General Aviation Heliports
• Transport Heliports
• Terminal Heliports
• Hospital Heliports
• Helipad Matting

  

A heliport can be constructed on the tops of buildings or in the center of gardens, and as shown in the picture, it can also be constructed in other isolated places where airports do not exist. Therefore, it is not necessary for a heliport to be a part of an airport.

As report from the Genius World Record the largest heliport was “An Khe, South Vietnam, during the Vietnam War, which had an area measuring 2 x 3 km (1 x1.75 miles) and could accommodate 434 helicopters”

There was an occasion when a helicopter landed at the top of Everest. Even in the absence of a helipad, a helicopter can land somewhere. The given photo is the historic helicopter photo that was taken at the top of Mount Everest.

Mountainous regions might not have helipads. Choppers that go to rescue to missions on mountains such as Everest won’t always have a designated helipad where one can land. The following picture shows the delivery of essential supplies in the now abandoned Mingbo Airstrip, which was more terrifying than Lukla Airport.

 Japan’s capital has 80 buildings where helicopters can land that make Tokyo the city with the highest number of helipads in the world.  

                             

There are five countries that don’t have airports, but these countries have helipads, which have helped them for air transport despite not having airports. One of them is the Vatican City heliport, shown in the picture below. 

Helicopters deck a flat, open surface on a ship from which aircraft take off. The pilot sidesteps the aircraft laterally using a white-painted line (the bum line) as a reference.