Wheeling Wheeler

Compared with those of, say United, the friendly skies of North Carolina-based Wheeler Airlines do not seem to amount to much. The line's fleet consists of three red, white and blue eight-passenger Cessna 402s. Its route map includes such eastern North Carolina points as Elizabeth City and Morehead City, small towns that were abandoned some time ago by larger carriers. But tiny Wheeler can claim at least two distinctions. Its president, principal stockholder and part-time pilot, Warren Wheeler, 31, has a unique way of keeping up with the competition: besides being the boss of Wheeler, he is a senior copilot with Piedmont Airlines, a regional carrier that flies some of the same routes as Wheeler. At the same time, the lanky young executive is a black and, so far as he knows, the head of the first and only black-owned scheduled air carrier in the U.S.

Postoperative Flight. Wheeler Airlines has 32 employees, including seven pilots, of whom one is black. The common denominator of the staff is enthusiasm. Says Bill Kempffer, 29, who triples as back-up pilot, public relations man and investigator of new route opportunities: "To work for Wheeler, you have to love flying." That certainly goes for the boss. Last month Wheeler had an appendectomy; a few days after the operation, with surgical staples still in his abdomen, he flew two round trips between Raleigh and Charlotte, then returned to the hospital for removal of the staples. Others among Wheeler's staff are equally eager. Recently, when the mini-airline inaugurated midday service from Charlotte to Raleigh-Durham Airport (Wheeler's headquarters), Pilot Richard Jeffords Jr., 23, helped passengers fill out tickets, loaded suitcases aboard the airplane, took the controls on the 60-minute, 130-mile flight, taxied to a stop, and unloaded the bags. Says Jeffords: "It's all in a day's work."

Airstruck since boyhood, Wheeler chose flying over the family business; his father, John H. Wheeler, is president of Durham's prosperous Mechanics and Farmers Bank. Young Wheeler left North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University after a year, enrolled in flying school in Oklahoma, and got a commercial license at 19. At 22, he was hired by Piedmont as one of its youngest--and first black--pilots. A few years later, he took a leave of absence to start a charter flying service, partly with loans from the Small Business Administration. In August 1973 he drew up a schedule and put his single plane to a new use: Wheeler Airlines was born.

In its first month, Wheeler flew just 208 passengers; recently the line has been carrying more than 1,000 passengers a month, mostly commuting businessmen, and revenues are up to more than $20,000 a month. Wheeler, however, has yet to earn a profit. The federal subsidy (up to $140,000 this year) that the line receives to provide service to shore and rural areas does not quite cover losses on these routes, although Wheeler has been able to break even or better on its popular and completely unsubsidized intercity commuter schedules. Wheeler, who pays himself less than $10,000 a year, would like to drop subsidized service altogether at some point. Says he: "It's holding us back."

Yet Wheeler sees a bright future for commuter airlines like his. With traffic rising steadily, he is contemplating adding flights to Richmond and Baltimore during the next two years. Piedmont appears unworried, even though Wheeler already competes with his employer between Raleigh, Charlotte and Norfolk. "They say do your own thing," says Wheeler. And he has. Not long ago, Wheeler turned down a promotion to captain at Piedmont because the added flying duties would cut into the time he needs to nurture his airline.

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