Vertical Flight and Urban Mobilities: the Promise and Reality of Helicopter Travel1

This article discusses the actual and potential impact of helicopter travel on urban mobility. Vertical flight has long promised a world of unhindered mobility, especially due to the versatility of the helicopter as a means of transportation. Some of the major utopias of mobility in the modern age have centred on the various capabilities of vertical flight, especially with regards to dense urban spaces. In this article I briefly uncover this modern desire for door‐to‐door air travel and situate contemporary uses of the helicopter in relation to historical fantasies of vertical flight. I then analyse a distinctive phenomenon in the contemporary world of vertical flight: the rise of helicopter travel in São Paulo, Brazil. By focusing on the various infrastructures that enable urban air travel and the needs and uses for helicopters in a major global city, this article investigates a relatively unknown but very significant development in contemporary urban mobility. The article also suggests a conceptual framework for understanding the emergence and effects of urban air travel in São Paulo, therefore seeking to contribute to developing theories of mobilities.