The world's largest airline--if number of destinations is counted--United Airlines began as Varney Air Lines, founded in 1926 by aviation pioneer Walter Varney. Varney operated as a US Airmail carrier that also flew passengers, making it the oldest airline in American history. Varney only lasted a year before being bought up by Boeing Aircraft, which operated its own airline (Boeing Air Transport) on the US west coast. The airline was only somewhat successful, and Boeing spun off its airline and airmail services into United Airlines in 1934.
The two companies kept a close partnership, which gave United access to one of the first true airliners, the all-metal Boeing 247D. The 247D's speed and comfort gave United such a head start over other airlines that TWA commissioned Douglas to create the DC-3. Airline travel took a hiatus during World War II, but United was well in position to take advantage of the huge growth in postwar air travel.
Unfortunately for United, so was Pan American, American and TWA, and United began to lose market share, though it remained profitable. It was able to catch up by buying out Capital Airlines in 1961, which made it, for a time, the second-largest airline in the world; only Aeroflot in the USSR was larger. By this time, it was operating jets, when it bought DC-8s in 1958. United also became one of the few American operators of the Sud-Aviation Caravelle, at a time when it was very rare for American airlines to purchase European aircraft.
United entered the 1970s in good shape, with a new logo designed by Saul Bass and its slogan "Fly the Friendly Skies." It also was one of the first airlines to enter the wide-body era, operating both Boeing 747s and McDonnell Douglas DC-10s. United achieved another first in 1973, when it flew President Richard Nixon aboard a domestic flight--the only time an American President has flown in a non-military aircraft. As good as United was doing, however, it was still constrained by a lack of international flights to Europe or the Pacific. Even after the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act, United only flew to Tokyo.
The 1980s would see the end of that, as United took advantage of Pan American's difficulties to first buy all of its Pacific routes (in 1985) and then the coveted New York-London route (in 1991, after Pan Am went under). It also saw United struggling with labor costs, leading to a damaging month-long strike in 1985. United somewhat resolved these issues by giving United's employees the controlling interest in the company. In 1997, it co-founded the Star Alliance partnership.
September 11, 2001 proved to be a double whammy for United. Two of its aircraft were used in the terrorist attacks, and the post-9/11 downturn, coupled with rising fuel costs, nearly destroyed the airline. Attempts at starting a low-cost subsidiary, first United Shuttle and then Ted, failed. Even a government bailout could not stem the loss of revenue, and United declared bankruptcy in 2002. This caused thousands of jobs to be lost, the employees to lose control of the company, and a hundred aircraft to be retired as United tried to--and successfully--restructured. It emerged from bankruptcy in 2006, and by 2010, when it merged with Continental Airlines, had mostly recovered from the 2002 bankruptcy.
This is one of the fairly rare cutaway models of a Boeing 747-100 offered by Revell in the early 1970s. Bary Poletto built it as a United aircraft, with the 1960s-era "Stars and Stripes" livery. The model itself did not come with a lot of passenger figures, though the interior is complete. (Then again, in the early years of 747 flight, a lack of passengers like this is pretty accurate.) N4735U was one of United's first 747s, and stayed with the airline for its entire career; it was scrapped after retirement in 1998.
