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United Airlines: A Very Brief History Of Flight

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History of Flight Throughout 20th century, two pioneering aviators and inventors, Orville and Wilbur Wright, turned human’s dream of flying into a reality. Although they were not the first to build and fly an aircraft, the Wright brothers made, the world's first power-driven heavier-than-air machine and aircraft that could be controlled while in the air. Before aircraft was invented, human tried to imitate bird’s posture to fly across the sky by building ornithopters, which was a designed to fly by flapping its wings. Therefore, Wright Brothers’ invention shaped our culture and changed the way we view our world . Wright Brothers developed their interest in flying after they read about the death of a German glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal …show more content…

United’s background and history throwback to the beginning of the aviation history in 1920s. Walter Varney, an aviation pioneer, found Varney Air Lines in 1926 which eventually became United Airlines and this was where it all began. (4)
In 1929, Boeing aeronautical conglomerate and several airplane companies, including Varney Air Lines, joined forces to form United Aircraft and Transportation Corporation in order to serve the air transport market for Boeing aircraft and transport mail to various cities via air. In the early 1930s, an operating division was established by the conglomerate and changed the name to United Air …show more content…

This merger gave an opportunity to United to cover its routes in the entire United States. In 1968, the holding company reorganized and renamed as UAL Corporation. The reorganization led to United Airlines become a wholly own subsidiary. (5) On the other hand, another America’s most widely recognized airlines, Pan American Airways, also helped the development of airline. Under the administration of Juan Trippe, founder of Pan American Airways, they launched first regularly scheduled international flight by U.S. airline and first flying mail between Key West, Florida, and Havana, and Cuba. At one time, their brandname was one of the most recognized in the world, second only to Coca-Cola. (6) After graduating from Yale in 1920, Trippe used his father’s inheritance to buy nine Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny", biplanes built by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company, for Long Island Airways; However, this airline was unable to generate enough revenue and it failed. Then, Trippe with two wealthy friends from Yale organized another airline, Colonial Air Transport, after the Air Mail Act of 1925. They won the first airmail contract between New York and Boston. Nonetheless, they failed again because a dispute among stockholders soon resulted in the sale of the company and they were excluded from any decision and their airline.

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