How many people support three cruiser helicopters?

Would replacing floatplanes with helicopters reduce the aviation crew carried by a cruiser?

Not necessarily; three helicopters operating around the clock could require roughly forty flight and maintenance personnel.

Removing floatplane handling equipment would save machinery, but more frequent flying could increase the aviation personnel carried. The estimate allows three helicopters and four or five aircrews for sustained operations. Using 1930s staffing assumptions, about eighteen fitters, a couple of chiefs, and one or two engineering officers would support them. With roughly twenty flight personnel and twenty on the engineering side, the detachment approaches forty people. The calculation concerns continuous operation in the proposed interwar service.