Just as it was about to go down for the third time, ailing, debt-ridden Capital Airlines last week found a healthy and willing rescuer. After five weeks of carefully examining Capital's plight—and sizing up its own chances of emerging unhurt—United Air Lines, the second largest U.S. airline (after American), offered to take over Capital's fleet, facilities, routes and debts in a "merger" that amounted to outright acquisition. The rescue ends Capital's financial troubles, but it also ends Capital, the first major U.S. airline to succumb to the crushing new pressures of the jet age. With its own 14,000-mile system, stretching...
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