T. Claude Ryan
Encyclopedia
Tubal Claude Ryan was an Irish-American aviator
born in Parsons, Kansas
. Ryan was best known for founding some airlines and four airplane factories.
, who had been the mechanic at the first flying school Ryan attended. One of his students was a wealthy young stock broker and real-estate developer named Benjamin Franklin Mahoney. Ryan sold half of the Ryan Flying Company to B. F. Mahoney on April 25, 1925. With Mahoney's funding, they bought Donald Douglas's first complete airplane, the Douglas Cloudster
," which Douglas had built to attempt the first non-stop transcontinental flight. A broken engine part grounded that flight in El Paso, Texas and by the time they had made the necessary repairs, a pair of military pilots accomplished the feat in a Fokker
.
Bowlus modified the Cloudster to carry ten passengers. With the modified Cloudster and three Standards that Bowlus had modified to carry four passengers each, they founded "The San Diego - Los Angeles Airlines," the first all-year airplane passenger service in the United States. It began operation on March 1, 1925 ferrying passengers on a regular schedule between San Diego, California
and Los Angeles, California
.
The company's next venture was to build aircraft to fit the requirements of the new Airmail service. The first aircraft this company, Ryan Airlines, produced was called the Ryan M-1
mail plane developed in 1926. It was the first production monoplane in the country. The so-called Ryan M-1 of the 1920s is in actuality a monoplane designed and engineered by William J. Waterhouse of Glendale, California's Grand Central Airport in 1924 (Waterhouse and Royer Airplane Company). In 1925, Ryan purchased construction blueprints of the Waterhouse/Royer Monoplane "Cruzair." William Hawley Bowlus built the craft in a San Diego waterfront cannery building. Ryan painted his logo on the plane's rudder and immediately marketed it as the Ryan M-1
. In an effort to disclaim plagiary, Ryan displayed his copy of the monoplane on an elevated platform at the airfield (Dutch Flat in San Diego), sporting a large banner saying "Built in San Diego" (photo on file at San Diego Air and Space Museum, 2001 Pan American Plaza, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101). Compounding and confusing the historical origins of the M-1, Ryan submitted Waterhouse's Cruzair design to the U.S. Patent Office as his own, and in 1929 Ryan was awarded "inventor" status for Waterhouse's monoplane design.
Ryan sold his half interest in their three companies: the 'Ryan Flying Company'; 'The San Diego - Los Angeles Airlines'; and 'Ryan Airlines' to his business partner, B. F. "Frank" Mahoney on November 23, 1926, and was kept on the payroll until the end of that year. Ryan often made claims to have remained to manage it long after that, though this fact is in contention by various sources,. What is known is that Ryan was not present when Donald A. Hall was hired and was never present when Charles Lindbergh arrived or during the production of the famous airplane, this according to personal letters between Charles Lindbergh and the designer Donald A. Hall,,,. He, thus was probably not approached by a group of St. Louis, Missouri, businessmen to build an aircraft to cross the Atlantic non-stop (to be flown by Charles A. Lindbergh). It is unclear where the source of the previous reports originated. Ryan had no financial interest in the company and made no financial gain from the NYP project.
Ryan used the money he got from the sale of Ryan Airlines to buy the U.S. distribution rights to the German Siemens & Halske
radial engines and began that enterprise as soon as the deal was final. He took delivery of his first two engines in December 1926 and mounted the first one on the new Ryan M-2 airframe he received from Mahoney as a part of their dissolution agreement. That M-2 with the Siemens & Halske engine mounted to it, became Ryan's sales tool, and in late January 1927, he began touring the country in attempts to sell those engines. When he returned to San Diego that summer, he formed the 'T. C. Ryan Flying School' and, in October of that same year, formed the first 'Ryan Aeronautical Corporation' through which to sell those engines. Soon afterward, he became embroiled in a lawsuit with the Mahoney-Ryan Aircraft Corporation, now based in Anglum, Missouri over his use of the "Ryan" name (the dissolution agreement with Mahoney forbade him from ever doing so without the letters "T. C." attached to the front. That lawsuit coupled with his failure to make good on his agreement to begin manufacturing the Siemens & Halske engines stateside (which he renamed 'Ryan-Seimens') caused his relationship with the engine manufacturer to sour. The German-based Siemens & Halske company bought him out in 1928; Ryan then took a hiatus.
Little is known of Ryan's dealings during that hiatus. It has been inferred that Ryan was instrumental in getting a newly formed landmass, that was created when, after the San Diego city fathers passed a bond initiative to deepen the center of the San Diego Harbor so that both commercial freighters and the Navy's new class of Aircraft Carriers could safely navigate in and out, they piled all the dredged dirt between the factory where the Spirit of St. Louis
aircraft was built and Dutch Flats, the flying field it flew from.
In 1931, Ryan opened a flying school
in San Diego, which he named the 'Ryan School of Aeronautics'. This company was one of many around the country (including, among others, the Parks College with campuses in Tulsa, OK, and St. Louis, MO) that served the government's need for trained pilots as they were increasing their readiness for what would become World War II
.
Dissatisfied with the trainer aircraft
available at the time, Ryan decided to produce his own, and returned to manufacturing. Thus, in 1932, he formed the 'new' Ryan Aeronautical Corporation, the second incarnation of the Ryan Aeronautical Company
, which became known as "Ryan Aircraft". It was the fourth new company to bear his name, and the last one he would form. The plane it was to manufacture took two years to complete, and in 1934 the Ryan ST
flew for the first time. The ST was a very successful plane, and many believe it to be one of the most beautiful planes ever built. Over the years, it was developed into a series of aircraft that were widely used by civilian organisations and air force
s worldwide.
Ryan Aeronautical Corporation produced many airplanes over the years, most of them trainers. Ryan again sold out his entire interest in a company he'd founded when, in 1969, he sold Ryan Aeronautical Corp. to the Teledyne
Corporation. That company, renamed Teledyne-Ryan, has always claimed to be the successor of the company that built the Spirit of St. Louis, but they had no connection to the Ryan Airlines other than the fact that Ryan founded them both. They produced a series of pilotless drones and airframes for the Bell Huey
helicopter. Teledyne later sold that latter company to Northrop Grumman
.
After his retirement Ryan form a new company with his son Jerome to develop and market the Ryan ST-100 Cloudster, a motor glider
the elder Ryan had designed. The aircraft was type certified
as both a light aircraft and powered glider, but Ryan died before production was commenced and only one was completed.
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
born in Parsons, Kansas
Parsons, Kansas
Parsons is a city in the northern part of Labette County, located in Southeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,500...
. Ryan was best known for founding some airlines and four airplane factories.
Business career
His first employee was William Hawley BowlusWilliam Hawley Bowlus
William Hawley Bowlus was a designer, engineer and builder of aircraft and recreational vehicles in the 1930s and '40s. Today he is most widely known for his key role in the design of Airstream travel trailers, which followed his prior famed work as the Superintendent of Construction on Charles...
, who had been the mechanic at the first flying school Ryan attended. One of his students was a wealthy young stock broker and real-estate developer named Benjamin Franklin Mahoney. Ryan sold half of the Ryan Flying Company to B. F. Mahoney on April 25, 1925. With Mahoney's funding, they bought Donald Douglas's first complete airplane, the Douglas Cloudster
Douglas Cloudster
-References:* The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft , 1985, Orbis Publishing...
," which Douglas had built to attempt the first non-stop transcontinental flight. A broken engine part grounded that flight in El Paso, Texas and by the time they had made the necessary repairs, a pair of military pilots accomplished the feat in a Fokker
Fokker
Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names, starting out in 1912 in Schwerin, Germany, moving to the Netherlands in 1919....
.
Bowlus modified the Cloudster to carry ten passengers. With the modified Cloudster and three Standards that Bowlus had modified to carry four passengers each, they founded "The San Diego - Los Angeles Airlines," the first all-year airplane passenger service in the United States. It began operation on March 1, 1925 ferrying passengers on a regular schedule between San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
and Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
.
The company's next venture was to build aircraft to fit the requirements of the new Airmail service. The first aircraft this company, Ryan Airlines, produced was called the Ryan M-1
Ryan M-1
-Bibliography:* Hall, Donald A. www.charleslindbergh.com, July 1927. Retrieved: 3 March 2009.* The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft. London: Aerospace Publishing, 1985....
mail plane developed in 1926. It was the first production monoplane in the country. The so-called Ryan M-1 of the 1920s is in actuality a monoplane designed and engineered by William J. Waterhouse of Glendale, California's Grand Central Airport in 1924 (Waterhouse and Royer Airplane Company). In 1925, Ryan purchased construction blueprints of the Waterhouse/Royer Monoplane "Cruzair." William Hawley Bowlus built the craft in a San Diego waterfront cannery building. Ryan painted his logo on the plane's rudder and immediately marketed it as the Ryan M-1
Ryan M-1
-Bibliography:* Hall, Donald A. www.charleslindbergh.com, July 1927. Retrieved: 3 March 2009.* The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft. London: Aerospace Publishing, 1985....
. In an effort to disclaim plagiary, Ryan displayed his copy of the monoplane on an elevated platform at the airfield (Dutch Flat in San Diego), sporting a large banner saying "Built in San Diego" (photo on file at San Diego Air and Space Museum, 2001 Pan American Plaza, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101). Compounding and confusing the historical origins of the M-1, Ryan submitted Waterhouse's Cruzair design to the U.S. Patent Office as his own, and in 1929 Ryan was awarded "inventor" status for Waterhouse's monoplane design.
Ryan sold his half interest in their three companies: the 'Ryan Flying Company'; 'The San Diego - Los Angeles Airlines'; and 'Ryan Airlines' to his business partner, B. F. "Frank" Mahoney on November 23, 1926, and was kept on the payroll until the end of that year. Ryan often made claims to have remained to manage it long after that, though this fact is in contention by various sources,. What is known is that Ryan was not present when Donald A. Hall was hired and was never present when Charles Lindbergh arrived or during the production of the famous airplane, this according to personal letters between Charles Lindbergh and the designer Donald A. Hall,,,. He, thus was probably not approached by a group of St. Louis, Missouri, businessmen to build an aircraft to cross the Atlantic non-stop (to be flown by Charles A. Lindbergh). It is unclear where the source of the previous reports originated. Ryan had no financial interest in the company and made no financial gain from the NYP project.
Ryan used the money he got from the sale of Ryan Airlines to buy the U.S. distribution rights to the German Siemens & Halske
Siemens & Halske
Siemens & Halske AG was a German electrical engineering company that later became part of Siemens AG.It was founded on 12 October 1847 as Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske by Ernst Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske...
radial engines and began that enterprise as soon as the deal was final. He took delivery of his first two engines in December 1926 and mounted the first one on the new Ryan M-2 airframe he received from Mahoney as a part of their dissolution agreement. That M-2 with the Siemens & Halske engine mounted to it, became Ryan's sales tool, and in late January 1927, he began touring the country in attempts to sell those engines. When he returned to San Diego that summer, he formed the 'T. C. Ryan Flying School' and, in October of that same year, formed the first 'Ryan Aeronautical Corporation' through which to sell those engines. Soon afterward, he became embroiled in a lawsuit with the Mahoney-Ryan Aircraft Corporation, now based in Anglum, Missouri over his use of the "Ryan" name (the dissolution agreement with Mahoney forbade him from ever doing so without the letters "T. C." attached to the front. That lawsuit coupled with his failure to make good on his agreement to begin manufacturing the Siemens & Halske engines stateside (which he renamed 'Ryan-Seimens') caused his relationship with the engine manufacturer to sour. The German-based Siemens & Halske company bought him out in 1928; Ryan then took a hiatus.
Little is known of Ryan's dealings during that hiatus. It has been inferred that Ryan was instrumental in getting a newly formed landmass, that was created when, after the San Diego city fathers passed a bond initiative to deepen the center of the San Diego Harbor so that both commercial freighters and the Navy's new class of Aircraft Carriers could safely navigate in and out, they piled all the dredged dirt between the factory where the Spirit of St. Louis
Spirit of St. Louis
The Spirit of St. Louis is the custom-built, single engine, single-seat monoplane that was flown solo by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris for which Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig Prize.Lindbergh took off in the Spirit from Roosevelt...
aircraft was built and Dutch Flats, the flying field it flew from.
In 1931, Ryan opened a flying school
Flight training
Flight training is a course of study used when learning to pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills....
in San Diego, which he named the 'Ryan School of Aeronautics'. This company was one of many around the country (including, among others, the Parks College with campuses in Tulsa, OK, and St. Louis, MO) that served the government's need for trained pilots as they were increasing their readiness for what would become World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Dissatisfied with the trainer aircraft
Trainer (aircraft)
A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate in-flight training of pilots and aircrews. The use of a dedicated trainer aircraft with additional safety features—such as tandem flight controls, forgiving flight characteristics and a simplified cockpit arrangement—allows...
available at the time, Ryan decided to produce his own, and returned to manufacturing. Thus, in 1932, he formed the 'new' Ryan Aeronautical Corporation, the second incarnation of the Ryan Aeronautical Company
Ryan Aeronautical Company
The Ryan Aeronautical Company was founded by T. Claude Ryan in San Diego, California in 1934. Part of Teledyne after 1969, Northrop Grumman purchased Teledyne Ryan in 1999...
, which became known as "Ryan Aircraft". It was the fourth new company to bear his name, and the last one he would form. The plane it was to manufacture took two years to complete, and in 1934 the Ryan ST
Ryan ST
The Ryan STs were a series of two seat, low-wing monoplane aircraft built by the Ryan Aeronautical Company. They were used as sport aircraft, as well as trainers by flying schools and the military of several countries.-Design and development:T...
flew for the first time. The ST was a very successful plane, and many believe it to be one of the most beautiful planes ever built. Over the years, it was developed into a series of aircraft that were widely used by civilian organisations and air force
Air force
An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy or...
s worldwide.
Ryan Aeronautical Corporation produced many airplanes over the years, most of them trainers. Ryan again sold out his entire interest in a company he'd founded when, in 1969, he sold Ryan Aeronautical Corp. to the Teledyne
Teledyne
Teledyne Technologies Incorporated is an industrial conglomerate primarily based in the United States but with global operations. It was founded in 1960, as Teledyne, Inc., by Henry Singleton and George Kozmetsky....
Corporation. That company, renamed Teledyne-Ryan, has always claimed to be the successor of the company that built the Spirit of St. Louis, but they had no connection to the Ryan Airlines other than the fact that Ryan founded them both. They produced a series of pilotless drones and airframes for the Bell Huey
Bell Huey
The Bell Huey family of helicopters includes a wide range of civil and military aircraft produced since 1956 by Bell Helicopter. This H-1 family of aircraft includes the utility UH-1 Iroquois and the derivative AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter series and ranges from the XH-40 prototype, first flown in...
helicopter. Teledyne later sold that latter company to Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American global aerospace and defense technology company formed by the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company was the fourth-largest defense contractor in the world as of 2010, and the largest builder of naval vessels. Northrop Grumman employs over...
.
After his retirement Ryan form a new company with his son Jerome to develop and market the Ryan ST-100 Cloudster, a motor glider
Motor glider
A motor glider is a fixed-wing aircraft that can be flown with or without engine power. The FAI Gliding Commission Sporting Code definition is: A fixed wing aerodyne equipped with a means of propulsion ,...
the elder Ryan had designed. The aircraft was type certified
Type certificate
A Type Certificate, is awarded by aviation regulating bodies to aerospace manufacturers after it has been established that the particular design of a civil aircraft, engine, or propeller has fulfilled the regulating bodies' current prevailing airworthiness requirements for the safe conduct of...
as both a light aircraft and powered glider, but Ryan died before production was commenced and only one was completed.