page_title: History of United Airlines
section_title: Expansion into a national carrier
hierarchical_section_title: History of United Airlines / History / Expansion into a national carrier
caption_attribution_description: United Airlines "The Chicago Executive" newspaper display ad
context_page_description: United Airlines is the third largest airline in the world, with 86,852 employees and 721 aircraft. It was the brainchild of William Boeing and emerged from his consolidation of numerous carriers and equipment manufacturers from 1928 to 1930.
context_section_description: United's early routes, formed by connecting airmail routes, was east-to-west from New York City via Chicago and Salt Lake City to San Francisco, and north–south along the West Coast. The early connections became the basis of United hubs in Chicago and San Francisco and later in Denver and Washington, D.C. These remain United's principal hubs.
  United introduced the Boeing 247 in 1933; for the first time, passengers could fly across the US without an overnight stop or changing planes. That summer the fastest flight left Newark at noon (probably EST) and arrived San Francisco at 0655 PST after eight stops; the fare was $160 one-way, equal to $2,868 in today's value.
   
  On the night of October 10, 1933, a United Boeing 247 exploded in mid-air and crashed near Chesterton, Indiana, killing the seven people aboard. Investigation revealed that the explosion was caused by a nitroglycerin bomb placed in the baggage hold. The United Airlines Chesterton Crash is believed to be the first proven case of air sabotage in commercial aviation history. No suspects or motives were ever found.
  During World War II United-trained ground crews modified airplanes for use as bombers and transported mail, material, and passengers in support of the war effort.  The airline was quite busy covering the need for air transport across the United States during the war.  Its fleet of fifty aircraft were utilized at a rate of more than thirteen hours per day by 1945 (well above the pre-war rate of less than nine hours per day), flying 100,000 miles per day. Post-war United benefited from new technologies (like the pressurized cabin which permitted planes to fly above the weather) and a boom in customer demand for air travel. This was the period in which Pan American Airways revived its Pacific route system that would later be acquired by United.
  In 1954, United became the first airline with flight simulators that had visual, sound, and motion cues for training pilots.  Purchased for US$3 million (1954) from Curtiss-Wright, these were the first modern simulators for training of commercial pilots.
  From 1953 to 1970 United-operated six-day-a-week afternoon non-stop extra fare "Men Only" flights between New York and Chicago ("The Chicago Executive" 642-643) and  Los Angeles and San Francisco (665-666) on which women and children were banned. Advertised as a "club in the sky", they featured "cocktails, steak dinner, and cigar and pipe smoking permitted".
  On November 1, 1955 United Airlines Flight 629, flying from Stapleton Airport in Denver to Portland, Oregon, was bombed, killing all 39 passengers and five crew members on board the Douglas DC-6B. The bomb was planted by Jack Graham who put the device in his mother's luggage to collect on her life insurance policy. Graham was arrested, tried, and was executed a year after the explosion.
  In the late 1950s, three United planes were lost in mid-air collisions that killed everyone on both aircraft involved. On June 30, 1956, Flight 718 collided with a Trans World Airlines Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation over the Grand Canyon in what was then the world's deadliest commercial airline disaster.  In 1958, Flight 736 crashed in southern Nevada after colliding with a USAF F-100 Super Sabre fighter jet.  And on December 16, 1960, Flight 826 hit another TWA Super Constellation over New York City.  These accidents helped pave the way for modern Air Traffic Control.  Also in 1958, United received its first Douglas DC-8, its first jet aircraft.
  United merged with Capital Airlines on June 1, 1961, displacing rival American Airlines as the world's second-largest airline behind Aeroflot of the Soviet Union. The merger with Capital resulted in United operating the British-manufactured Vickers Viscount which was the only mainline turboprop aircraft ever flown by the airline.  Also in 1961, United began operating French-manufactured Sud Aviation Caravelle jetliners and was the only U.S. airline ever to operate the Caravelle in scheduled passenger service.  In 1968 the company reorganized, creating UAL Corporation with United Air
caption: Ad for "Men only" flight "The Chicago Executive"
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