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Walter Thomas Varney (December 26, 1888 – January 25, 1967) was an American aviation pioneer who founded forerunners of two major U.S. airlines, United Airlines and Continental Airlines, which combined under United Continental Holdings long after his death.
Apr 6, 2018 · Walter T. Varney, a pilot in the aviation section of the U.S. Signal Corps during World War I, had won an airmail contract in the fall of the previous year. This contract was one of the first to be awarded to a private airline by the U.S. Post Office Department for designated mail-delivery routes.
- Airlines Merged to Form Large Corporations
- The Army Air Corps Was Not Ready
- United Airlines Was Involved in Another Merger Many Years Later
As air travel began to grow, plane makers and airlines began to merge, forming large corporations. The media saw this as a way of manipulating the market and cried foul. The build-up to all the fuss followed from the Air Mail Act of 1930 when Postmaster General met with executives from the country's airlines. The media claimed that the airlines eff...
Unprepared and with minimal experience of flying at night, the Army Air Corp suffered several crashes that led to the deaths of 13 pilots. On May 8, 1934, new Postmaster General James A. Farley issued temporary mail contracts that led to the restructuring of the airline industry and the modernization of the Army Air Corps. United Airlines somehow m...
Facing stiff competition from low-cost carriers and a challenging economic climate in the late 2000s, United Airlines was losing money and needed to find a solution. Houston, Texas-headquartered Continental Airlines, was in a similar position, also looking to reverse its losses. United and Continental entered talks after seeing how Delta Air Lines ...
- Journalist
United was formed by the amalgamation of several airlines in the late 1920s, the oldest of these being Varney Air Lines, created in 1926 by Walter Varney who later co-founded the predecessor to Continental Airlines.
Jan 23, 2021 · Walter Thomas Varney was an aviation pioneer and founded what later became Continental Airlines. Walter Thomas Varney served as a pilot in the Aviation Section of the US Signal Corps during the First World War.
Walter T. Varney was born December 26, 1888 in San Francisco. Going to Redwood School of Aviation before World War 1. He enlisted and was sent to School of Military Aeronutics at the University of California, finishing his training in 1918. In 1919 he bought Lynch Field in Redwood City.
Later it came under the control of Robert Forman Six (president 1938–82), who gave the airline the name Continental and, in the following decades, transformed the shoestring operation into one of the major American transportation companies, headquartered first in Denver….
