Donald Ellsworth Burlingame was involved in aviation for most of his life. He was born August 1, 1919 in Onalaska, Washington to Lloyd and Martha Burlingame. He bought a Taylorcraft two-seater in May 1941 and obtained his private and commercial ratings in 1942. He joined the U.S. Naval Air Force in December 1942. He served as a flight instructor at Naval Air Station Pasco in Franklin County, Washington and at Naval Air Station Memphis in Tennessee. He later became a Vought F4U Corsair pilot and flew off the USS Midway (CV-41).

After the end of World War II, Burlingame held a variety of jobs. He returned to flying in 1954 and around that time he was hired by Westair Transport, a cargo company, initially as a Curtiss C-46 co-pilot. He later flew as captain on an ATR across the Canadian and U.S. arctic during the DEW line construction. Eventually, Westair went bankrupt and was reestablished as SkyVan Airlines. Skyvan leased at least one C-46 to Kuwait Airways, complete with crews, of which Burlingame was a part.

In the spring of 1959 Burlingame was hired by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as an air carrier operations inspector and moved with his family to Ypsilanti, Michigan. In January 1962, he transferred to the Juneau, Alaska FAA flight standards district office. Then in 1965 he was promoted to a position in Anchorage, Alaska. In 1966 he was promoted again, returning to Juneau. In 1969 he transferred back to Anchorage and remained there until 1971 when he was selected as the FAA representative in Beirut, Lebanon with his territory of coverage being northern Africa and most of the Middle East. In 1975 his office was moved to Frankfurt, Germany because of the political situation in Beirut and then to Rome, Italy. Burlingame was transferred to an FAA office in Seattle, Washington in April 1977. He retired in 1980.

Burlingame was married to Grace Wallin. He died December 12, 2007 in Lacey, Washington.

Biographical sketch derived from donor information and records on Ancestry.com.