Waldo Dean Waterman (June 16, 1894 – December 8, 1976) was an inventor and aviation pioneer from San Diego, California. He developed a series of tailless swept-wing aircraft incorporating tricycle landing gear, culminating in a low-cost and simple-to-fly flying car. Biography Waterman built his first aircraft, a biplane hang glider, in 1909 while still in high school. He successfully flew the biplane hang glider on a slope near his home and by auto-tow. He then took on a partner to help build a powered aircraft that he entered in the first Dominguez Air Meet in January 1910. The aircraft was not completed in time for the meet. However, he began testing the aircraft on North Island. It was under-powered and required an auto-tow assist to get airborne. He flew the aircraft with some success but crashed, breaking both ankles. In 1911, Glenn Curtiss moved his winter headquarters to North Island and Waterman attached himself to the Curtiss camp. In early 1912, the US Navy moved its three aircraft to Curtiss' testing station. By this time Waterman was a fixture at the station and was a frequent ride-along. In 1912, Waterman entered the University of California as a student of mechanical engineering. When World War I broke out, and after being rejected from military service because of his broken ankles and flat feet, he became head of the Department of Theory of Flight, School of Military Aeronautics at the University of California. Later he became Chief Engineer at the U.S. Aircraft Corporation and remained to liquidate the company at the end of the war. With some assets purchased from the U.S. Aircraft Corporation, Waterman moved to Santa Monica, where he became test pilot for Bach Aircraft and established the Waterman Aircraft Manufacturing Company. However, he was forced out of business when the U.S. Army began dumping war-surplus aircraft on the civilian market for a tiny fraction of what Waterman could sell his custom aircraft for. In 1929, Waterman built his first tailless monoplane, the Whatsit, which also used the then unusual tricycle landing gear. It had a swept wing, following the work of British pioneer J. W. Dunne on his Dunne D.7 of 1911. The Whatsit had a truncated fuselage and a forward trim plane. A development of the Whatsit was the high-wing Waterman Arrowplane. As well as the Whatsit, in 1930 Waterman produced another innovative design with a low-wing monoplane