AVIATION: New Slick Plan

Slick Airways, largest U.S. air-freight line, has been in trouble ever since the end of the Korean war cut military freight orders and new civilian business failed to fill the gap (TIME, Oct. 4). Last week two optimistic outsiders who thought they could cure Slick’s ailments took over the airline’s management. In as new board chairman and top manager went Delos Wilson Rentzel, 45, a former CAA administrator, CAB chairman and Under Secretary of Commerce for Transportation, who is now president of two Oklahoma City truck lines. In as director and executive committee member went Roy G. Woods, 54, Oklahoma oilman and owner of several trucking companies. Rentzel and Woods got a five-year option to buy 20% of Slick Airways stock (100,000 shares). Founder Earl Slick, whose family still owns 51% of Slick, stepped down to a directorship.

Rentzel plans to build Slick into an air-truck line, with a plan to truck goods from New York to Chicago, then fly the cargo to the West Coast. Combined air-truck freight would go across the country in two to three days, compared with eight to nine by rail freight, at an air freight rate somewhere between present air and rail charges.