The post-war economic boom that swept the United States included a strong demand for air travel. President William A. Patterson responded by expanding United's workforce, acquiring new routes and purchasing United's first jet aircraft. This strategy solidified United's industry leadership and positioned it to become the world's largest commercial airline.

Peace, Prosperity and Progress...
The end of World War II brought a brief period of euphoria to the war-weary people of the United States. Rationing was over, business and industry were back to a peacetime mode, and the nation was feeling the feverish excitement of the boom times economists had predicted.

But while the forecasters were correct in their predictions, none came close to foretelling the suddenness and intensity with which the boom would thrust itself upon the nation, particularly upon the air transport industry. Airline fares had been reduced 10 percent since 1941, making it cheaper in many cases to travel by air than by rail.

As FORTUNE magazine noted in its August 1946 issue, "Few airline executives came near guessing correctly the depth of the packed-down public demand for air travel."

The next decade saw United solidifying its base as it centralized control of daily operations out of its new operations hub in Denver. Aircraft maintenance also was centralized at a new high-tech, "push-button" facility in San Francisco.

With new fleets of state-of-the-art equipment, including the Douglas DC-6, Convair 340, Boeing 377 Stratocruiser and the Douglas DC-7 transports, United stretched its wings beyond the western boundary of the United States and launched service to Hawaii.