In 1909, at the age of 14, Waldo Waterman became very much interested in the exploits of the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss, reading everything written about them. Through this interest, Waterman started to build a glider. In July first of that same year, he made his first successful airborne flight down the slopes of a canyon near his home in San Diego, California. Advancing to powered aircraft Waterman developed an association with Glenn Curtiss in California until 1912, when he enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley to study engineering. He received his degree as World War I began, and became head of the Department of Theory of Flight at the U.S. Army Signal Corps School of Military Aeronautics. After the war he became associated with several aircraft manufacturing companies in various engineering and management positions. In 1927 he became chief experimental engineer for the Bach Aircraft Co., builders of a light tri-motor transport. With one of these planes, Waterman won the Air Transport Race at the National Air Races in Cleveland in 1929, and later that year broke the 1000 kilogram load carrying altitude record. In 1929, he built the Waterman Whatsit, the first tailless flying-wing monoplane in this country, and the first plane to use the modern version of the tricycle landing gear. This plane was the forerunner of his Arrowplane and Arrowbile, built in 1937 in answer to the U.S. Department of Commerce's requirement for a simple, easy to fly, low cost airplane. Waterman continued to produce aircraft designs and construct early Chanute and Curtiss type gliders and aircraft, some of which he flew in airshows, until his death.
Inducted in 1968.
Portrait Location: Not Currently on Floor