ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the effects of urban helicopter traffic, with particular emphasis on the politics, governance and infrastructure of urban flight. Through an analysis of the urban embodiment of helicopter travel in one of the world’s greatest metropolises, São Paulo,1 the chapter shows how new aeromobilities become contested and politicized, and therefore an important feature of the social divisions that mark contemporary mobility. At first sight, as a subject matter for aeromobility research, helicopter flights belong, seemingly, to a world quite apart from the ones analyzed elsewhere in this volume. However, as this chapter shows, many of the aeromobility issues discussed here share a common ground with many of the other chapters. In any case, it is important to start by understanding the specificity of helicopter flights in the context of the study of aeromobilities in general.
