Ryan Aeronautical

In 1922, T.C. Ryan founded a flying service in San Diego that would lead to several aviation ventures bearing the Ryan name, including Ryan Airline Company founded in 1925.{{cite journal|journal=Flying Magazine|date=July 1954|title=Genealogy of American Aircraft|author=Gill Rob Wilson}}

T.C. Ryan, whose previous companies were best known for building Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic Spirit of St. Louis, actually had no part in building the famous aircraft.Spirit and Creator: The Mysterious Man Behind Lindbergh's Flight to Paris by Nova HallThe Untold Story of the Spirit of St. Louis by Ev Cassagneres{{cite web|url=http://www.charleslindbergh.com/hall/3/letter_fromCal01-1939-post1970.jpg|title=Image: letter_fromCal01-1939-post1970.jpg, (468 × 600 px)|publisher=charleslindbergh.com|access-date=2015-09-04}}{{cite web|url=http://www.charleslindbergh.com/hall/3/letter_fromCal02-1939-post1970.jpg|title=Image: letter_fromCal02-1939-post1970.jpg, (462 × 596 px)|publisher=charleslindbergh.com|access-date=2015-09-04}}{{cite web|url=http://www.charleslindbergh.com/hall/3/letter_fromCal03-1939-post1970.jpg|title=Image: letter_fromCal03-1939-post1970.jpg, (466 × 600 px)|publisher=charleslindbergh.com|access-date=2015-09-04}}{{cite web|url=http://www.charleslindbergh.com/hall/3/letter_fromCal04-1939-post1970.jpg|title=Image: letter_fromCal04-1939-post1970.jpg, (462 × 600 px)|publisher=charleslindbergh.com|access-date=2015-09-04}} Ryan had been owner or partner in several previous companies, one of which also bore the name Ryan Aeronautical. The Spirit of St. Louis was not built by the final Ryan Aeronautical entity.{{cite news|url = https://tucson.com/news/retrotucson/photos-ryan-field-west-of-tucson/collection_a3d5dfb2-8ad9-11e8-98df-4ffcee093bb4.html| title = Photos: Ryan Field west of Tucson|date= July 19, 2018| work = Arizona Daily Star}}

The new company's first aircraft was the S-T Sport Trainer,{{cite book |last1=Cassagneres |first1=Ev |title=The New Ryan: Development and History of the Ryan ST and SC |date=1995 |publisher=Flying Books International |location=Eagan |isbn=9780911139204 |pages=Introduction,1–19, 52}} a low-wing tandem-seat monoplane with a {{cvt|95|hp}} Menasco B-4 Pirate straight-4 engine. Five were built before production switched to the Ryan ST-A Aerobatic with a more powerful {{cvt|125|hp}} Menasco C-4 in 1935. This aircraft now had enough power for aerobatic display, and it won the 1937 International Aerobatic Championships. A further improved ST-A Special was built in 1936, with a supercharged {{cvt|150|hp}} Menasco C-4S.

In 1937 and 1938, a second civilian aircraft model was introduced, the S-C Sport Coupe, or SC-W with a {{cvt|145|hp}} Warner Super Scarab radial engine. The SC-W was a larger three-seater aircraft with a sliding canopy and side-by-side front seating. The prototype SC-M was originally powered by a Menasco C-4 inline engine, however testing revealed that more power was needed. Thirteen examples of the SC-W were built, although the last one was assembled from surplus parts decades after the initial production run was finished.

File:Ryan Aeronautical Company logo 1960.png

Interest from the United States Army Air Corps followed. The Menasco engines proved unreliable, and instead Kinner radial engines were fitted. Aircraft were produced as the PT-16 (15 built); PT-20 (30 built); PT-21 (100 USAAF, 100 USN); and finally as the definitive PT-22 Recruit (1,048 built) ordered in 1941 as pilot training began its rapid expansion.

Ryan also pioneered STOL techniques in its YO-51 Dragonfly liaison and observation craft, but only three were built.{{cite book |last1=Cassagneres |first1=Ev |title=The Spirit of Ryan |date=1982 |publisher=TAB BOOKS Inc. |location=Blue Ridge Summit |pages=208–210}}

File:Teledyne-Ryan AQM-34N Firebee, 1962 - Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum - McMinnville, Oregon - DSC00908.jpg - McMinnville, Oregon]]

In the immediate postwar years, Ryan bought the rights to the Navion light aircraft from North American Aviation, selling it to both military and civilian customers.{{rp|222–225}}

Ryan became involved in the missile and unmanned aircraft fields, developing the Ryan Firebee unmanned target drone, the Ryan Firebird (the first American air-to-air missile) among others, as well as a number of experimental and research aircraft.

Ryan acquired a 50% stake in Continental Motors Corporation, the aircraft-engine builder, in 1965.Leyes, Richard A., and William A. Fleming, The History of North American Small Gas Turbine Aircraft Engines, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 1999: p.143 {{ISBN|1-56347-332-1}}

In the 1950s, Ryan was a pioneer in jet vertical flight with the X-13 Vertijet, a tail-sitting jet with a delta wing which was not used in production designs. In the early 1960s, Ryan built the XV-5 Vertifan for the U.S. Army, which used wing- and nose-mounted lift vanes for V/STOL vertical flight. Other Ryan V/STOL designs included the VZ-3 Vertiplane.{{rp|226–235}}

Ryan developed the highly accurate radar system used on the Apollo Lunar Module.{{rp|237–238}}

In 1968, the company was acquired by Teledyne for $128 million and a year later became a wholly owned subsidiary of that company as Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical Company.{{rp|237}}

Northrop Grumman purchased Teledyne Ryan in 1999, with the products continuing to form the core of that firm's unmanned aerial vehicle efforts.

• AAM-A-1 Firebird
• ADM-160 MALD

• Ryan Airfield

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Ryan Aeronautical Company}}

• [http://ryan.missc.net Ryan Aeronautical – Port of San Diego]
• [http://sandiegoairandspace.org/blog/article/ryan-aeronautical-collection Ryan Aeronautical Collection – San Diego Air & Space Museum]
• [http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/albums/72157626514780879 The Ryan Aeronautical Photo Collection – Flickr]

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{{Ryan aircraft}}

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Category:Northrop Grumman

Category:Manufacturing companies based in San Diego

Category:Defunct manufacturing companies based in California

Category:Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States

Category:1934 establishments in California

Category:Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1934

Category:Technology companies established in 1934

Category:American companies established in 1934

Category:Defunct technology companies based in California

Category:Technology companies based in San Diego