Flying Tours

In 1929, slight, wiry Lewis C. ("Squeaky") Burwell was washed out of the Army's aviation cadet training program by his superior, Claire Chennault. When World War II came, stubborn Squeaky Burwell got his chance to fly in combat and as a transport pilot in China. One day he found among his passengers General Claire Chennault. "Brother," said Burwell, "you better get out. It's going to be a rough ride." It was.

At war's end, Squeaky Burwell, 37, decided to start an airline specializing in all-expense vacation tours. He raised more than $400,000--some of it from the Du Pont family--and, with eight surplus DC-4s and DC-3s, Resort Airlines, Inc. was under way.

Collateral. Resort put out such tours as a $91.25 eight-day all-expense trip (New York to Lake Placid), and $785 for a 16-day tour through the West. Soon Resort was flying to Canada, the West Indies and Central America under temporary permission from the Civil Aeronautics Board.

For three years, Resort grossed $400,000 annually but dipped in the red because it spent $150,000 on lawyers and research, trying to win a permanent, scheduled certificate from CAB. Lined up against Burwell were 14 big airlines.

Security. Last January Squeaky Burwell heard that CAB was ready to wash him out. It vetoed his request for permanent travel routes. But all CAB decisions on overseas certificates are subject to a White House O.K. Burwell turned himself into a one-man lobby in Washington. A loyal Democrat who had raised money for Harry Truman in the 1948 campaign, he buttonholed 24 Senators, nine Representatives and 51 Administration officials. Then he had a chat with Harry Truman, told him: "If a man's in a hurry he takes an ordinary airline; if he wants to kill two weeks he takes a packaged tour."

Last week the White House reversed CAB. At the order of the President, CAB awarded a web of overseas routes to Resort Airlines. (CAB still has to pass on a request for domestic routes.) They fan out from New York, Chicago and six other cities to foreign vacation spots. Thus, Resort became the first U.S. carrier certified to handle packaged tours only.

Other airlines were also pushing vacation tours. Eastern offered a packaged "houseparty air tour," from New York to Miami and return. It included a week at a good hotel, food, dancing, wiener roast, a cruise and a champagne party--all for $153.82. United Airlines offered tours to Hawaii, to Colorado dude ranches, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska and Canada.

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