| Tubal Claude Ryan | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 3, 1898 Parsons, Kansas |
| Died | September 11, 1982 (aged 84) |
| Occupation | Aviator, aerospace engineer |
Tubal Claude Ryan (January 3, 1898 – September 11, 1982) was an Irish-American aviator born in Parsons, Kansas. Ryan was best known for founding some airlines and four airplane factories.
His first employee was William Hawley Bowlus, 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,.[1][2] What is known is that Ryan was not present when Donald A. Hall was hired [2] 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,[3][4],,.[5][6] 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'.[7] 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.[7] 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 forces 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.[8][9][10]
