High Horizons: Daredevil Flying Postmen to Modern Magic Carpet--The United Air Lines Story

ix, 266 pp. United traces its roots to Varney Air Lines (VAL), which Walter Varney founded in 1926 in Boise, Idaho. Continental Airlines is the successor to Speed Lanes, which Varney had founded by 1932 and whose name changed to Varney Speed Lines in 1934. VAL flew the first privately contracted air mail flight in the U.S. on April 6, 1926.[18][19][20] In 1927, William Boeing founded Boeing Air Transport to operate air mail routes under contract with the United States Post Office Department.[21] In 1929, Boeing merged his company with Pratt & Whitney to form the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (UATC) which then set about buying, in the space of just 28 months, Pacific Air Transport, Stout Air Services, VAL, and National Air Transport, as well as numerous equipment manufacturers at the same time.[22][23] On March 28, 1931, UATC formed United Air Lines, Inc. as a holding company for its airline subsidiaries.[24]-Wikipedia