The Little Aviator That Could

Few know of Walter Thomas Varney or his contribution to modern air travel. The man who would later be credited with founding two major airlines started small. Born a day after Christmas, 1888, Varney would go to fly for the U. S. Signal Corps during the first World War. After the war, Varney started an aviation school and air taxi company in San Francisco. Life did not seem to hold much promise of further excitement for Walter T. Varney, but 1925 changed all that.

That year, Congress passed the Contract Air Mail Act, opening up postal air routes to private operators. Many would bid on the lucrative airmail routes that serviced cities such as New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, and St. Louis, but Varney saw opportunity where no one else did. Believing that no one else would place a bid, Varney put himself firmly in position to win the airmail route that would serve Pasco, WA, Boise, ID, and Elko, NV. In October, 1925, he was awarded the 435-mile route uncontested.

For his newly created air service, headquartered in Boise, ID¹, Varney recruited another flight instructor, three student pilots, and four mechanics to work for him. He also bought six Swallow biplanes, which were unfortunately underpowered. The planes gave him enough trouble that he had to put in more powerful engines. Later, Varney would replace them entirely with planes made by Stearman.²

Over time Varney expanded his route, dropping Elko and replacing it with Salt Lake City and extending service at its northern end to Spokane and Seattle. He had managed to transform a route that no one else wanted into a lucrative air service. In mid-1930, United Aircraft acquired Varney Air Lines. Along with National Air Transport, Pacific Air Transport, Boeing Air Transport, and Stout Air Services, Varney Air Lines (the oldest of all these companies) would form the foundation of United Airlines.

Not content to simply have his company be absorbed into a larger one, Varney founded Varney Air Service in 1931. In 1932, It became Varney Speed Lines Air Service. Unfortnately, by mid-1934, this company had folded.

The intreped Varney made one more attempt at the airline business. The same year his second air service collapsed, Varney teamed up with Louis Mueller to form Varney Speed Lines. This company served New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and California. Later that year, Varney ceded control to Mueller who renamed the company Varney Air Transport. Mueller later sold 40% of the company to Robert Six in 1936, who renamed the company Continental in 1937.

While Varney now is little more than a footnote in aviation history, one of many enthusiastic characters who bridged the gap between the Wright brothers and modern airlines, his influence was staggering. How many others can claim to have founded two major airlines?

Next time you look up up to see jet crossing the sky, give a little thought to Walter T. Varney.

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1. A Varney Air Line hangar, dating from 1931, served as part of the Boise Airport terminal building until 2003.

2. When writing this article, there was an amusing story of how Varney pilots had to take off using trees in the Airline Builders, part of Time-Life’s The Epic of Flight series. While the tale was delightful, it also smacks of apocrypha. After lots of deliberation (and finding no other reference to the story in the scant sources I could find about Walter T. Varney) I finally decided to excise the story. However, on the off chance that the tale is true, here is the paragraph as it originally appeared:

For his newly created air service Varney recruited another flight instructor, three student pilots, and four mechanics to work for him. He also bought six Swallow biplanes, which due to their underpowered engines had to be launched in a rather novel fashion. On occasion, they would park one of the planes against a sapling, where the pilot could rev his engine to nearly full throttle before jumping the young tree. The intrepid pilot would then aim his roaring plane at a second sapling, using it to bounce his feeble little craft into the air. The planes gave him enough trouble that he had to put in more powerful engines. Later, Varney would replace them entirely with planes made by Stearman.