United Air Lines  Lockheed 18-10 Lodestar  

NC25633, 1940. By Bill Larkins via Ed Coates Collection. Notes: United have, since their inception, had many routes up and down California's San Joaquin Valley, including the coastal cities off Highway 101.  They were the original routes established by founder carrier Pacific Air Transport.   In the 1940s these cities were served by a modest fleet of  Lodestars. Bill Larkins captured this one at Monterey in 1941.    It was impressed ("requisitioned" might be a better word) by the military purchasing agency during WW II and "Lend-Leased" to BOAC for wartime service whence it was registered G-AGCZ.  Since it was written off in Egypt in the early 1940s, this was clearly one aircraft which was not returned after the "Lease" (very few were, in actual fact).