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Helistop vs. Heliport: Which Would Boston Install and Where?

And will it even be near the new GE HQ?

Everyone knows that the most pressing issue for the City of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is where to put a helicopter landing near the planned General Electric office hub.

As Jon Chesto reports in the Globe, "the state has already discussed a small patch of grass just to the south of the Tip O’Neill Tunnel ... The state Department of Transportation is also expected to look at a number of other locations close to GE’s future headquarters in Fort Point. And then there’s always the option of sticking a helipad on a barge in the water."

And, yet, the where of it all is only the half of it: There's also the matter of just what kind of helicopter landing Boston will host. Will it be a heliport, a kind of airport equivalent for the whirly-bird set? Or merely a helistop, a place to park the cyclone for a sec during dropoffs and takeoffs?

Those questions, and the location riddle, are all very much, well, up in the air still. GE doesn't relocate to Fort Point until 2018. Stay tuned.