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Comment by Aeolun | Hacker News Reader

Sibling comment has a page that says:

> Without doubt, the tallest mooring mast ever designed was the spire of the Empire State Building which was originally constructed to serve as a mooring mast, although soon after converted for use as a television and radio transmitter tower due to the discovered infeasibility of mooring an airship

Now I’m curious what it actually is.

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They did build the Empire state building with a mooring mast and a a lounge / ticket area and a way for the passengers to get on the plane. But it was purely speculative, and though they took publicity photos, they never used it(remember: there were only a handful of commercial airships).

There used to be a commercial heliport on top of the Pan Am Building over Grand Central Station. The first helicopter crash that sent chunks of metal flying 600 feet down to streets with huge amounts of foot traffic permanently closed it. I'm sure something similar would have happened had the Empire State Building 'port' actually been used.

Unlike the Empire State Building airship dock, the Pan Am heliport was an actual and working mini 'airport' with regular scheduled flights / pick-ups-drop-offs for years.

This is also why none of the companies building powered lift eVTOL aircraft like Joby and Lillium are unlikely to achieve mass market success. Even if they can achieve FAA certification, there aren't enough places to land in dense urban areas.

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