He Built America's First Black Airline

. They Took It

In 1969, Warren Hervey Wheeler founded Wheeler Airlines—the first FAA-certified Black-owned commercial airline in U.S. history. Born in Durham, North Carolina in 1943, Wheeler became Piedmont Airlines' first Black pilot in 1966, flying Boeing 737s when most airlines refused to hire Black pilots. Frustrated by systemic racism, he built his own solution. Wheeler Airlines operated five Beechcraft 99 aircraft on routes connecting Raleigh to New York and Charlotte to Atlantic City. But his real genius was the training pipeline: he created a flight school that trained pilots to 2,000 hours, promoted them to captain, then watched as major airlines like Delta, United, and American hired his graduates. Wheeler cracked the door to aviation for an entire generation of Black pilots. Yet in 1991, after 22 years of operation, Wheeler Airlines closed. Not because of failure, but because airline deregulation allowed bigger carriers to undercut his routes and starve him out financially. The industry took everything he built. Every Black pilot flying today stands on Warren Wheeler's shoulders. His name should be taught in every aviation history class.