Originally Posted by
jlemon
However, I can find no evidence that United ever operated the Caravelle on the west coast of the U.S. or any further west than Omaha.
Indeed. The timetables always showed this, with Omaha as a westernmost point. Bear in mind there were only 20 aircraft in the fleet and therefore this would support only a limited number of Caravelle-qualified pilot bases, they couldn't easily be spread right across United's vast network. The same was true of the much larger United Viscount fleet, they never got further west than the midwest either.
However I did read an article which said that heavy maintenance checks were performed on the Caravelles at the big United maintenance base in San Francisco, that they were ferried empty to and fro, and it was common to see one on the ramp there. Off-line maintenance bases (which SFO would be for Caravelles) were not unknown even in the 1950s-60s, there were a number in the UK as well at points which were not even commercial airport.