Waterman Airlines Lockheed 18-56 Lodestar   NC58360                       (c/n  2502)

                                     

                                         Waterman Airlines was an Alabama intra-state airline division of the Waterman Steamship Company.
                                         It was founded by Caroll B. Waterman, son of the company's founder and a Navy flyer during WW II..
                                         Intra-state services were provided in the 1945-1947 era from Mobile, Alabama's (then new) Bates Field
                                         Airport to Dothan, Montgomery, Birmingham, Huntsville and Muscle Shoals using a couple of Lodestars,
                                         one of which is seen above in this image from the Mike Sparkman collection.     Services were later up-
                                         graded to DC-3s, and four of these ex C-47s were acquired.   The only illustration of one of these latter
                                         aircraft I have is on the advertisement below also furnished by Mike Sparkman.  In those early post-war
                                         days the CAB did not take too kindly to granting small upstart carriers with inter-state licences, and
                                         since there was not too much money to be made in intra-state Alabama routes, Waterman later got into
                                         non-sked (and ITC, or Air Cruise, as they called them) operations with DC-4s, primarily from New York
                                         to Puerto Rico (q.v.).   Finally, to gain entry into the broader airline industry, Waterman purchased TWA's
                                         share in TACA International Airlines and went on to virtually run that airline and also to set up other Latin
                                         American and Caribbean concerns such as Aerovias Brasil, BWIA et al.
                                         The Lodestar seen above was a former USAAF C-60A-5-LO (42-56029) and was civilianized in 1946.
                                         When sold by Waterman it went to the University of Southern California and, in August 1955 became
                                         Learstar N88L