Ryan Aeronautical

Ryan Aeronautical Company

San Diego, California

The Ryan Aeronautical Company was founded by

Early history

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.^[2]

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.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]} 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.^[9]

The new company's first aircraft was the

.

In 1937 and 1938, a second civilian aircraft model was introduced, the

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.

USAAC trainers

Interest from the

(1,048 built) ordered in 1941 as pilot training began its rapid expansion.

Ryan also pioneered

Postwar

In the immediate postwar years, Ryan bought the rights to the

^{: 222–225}

Ryan became involved in the missile and unmanned aircraft fields, developing 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

In the 1950s, Ryan was a pioneer in jet vertical flight with the

^{: 226–235}

Ryan developed the highly accurate radar system used on the Apollo Lunar Module.^{[11]: 237–238}

In 1968, the company was acquired by

^: 237

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

Aircraft

Model name	First flight	Number built	Type
Ryan M-1	1926	36	Mail plane
Ryan ST, PT-22 Recruit	1934	1994	Trainer
Ryan S-C	1937	14	Light passenger aircraft
Ryan YO-51 Dragonfly	1940	3	STOL scout
Ryan FR Fireball	1944	66	Piston-jet fighter
Ryan XF2R Dark Shark	1946	1	Turboprop fighter
Ryan Navion	1948	1202	Light passenger aircraft; military liaison
Ryan X-13 Vertijet	1955	2	Experimental vertical takeoff
Ryan Firebee	1955	xx	Target drone
Ryan VZ-3 Vertiplane	1959	1	Experimental V/STOL
Ryan Model 147	1960s		Drone
Ryan XV-8	1961	1	Flex wing
Ryan XV-5 Vertifan	1964	2	VTOL
Ryan AQM-91 Firefly	1968	28	Reconnaissance drone
Ryan YQM-98	1974		Reconnaissance drone
Teledyne Ryan Scarab	1988		Reconnaissance drone
Teledyne Ryan 410	1988		Reconnaissance drone
BQM-145 Peregrine	1992		Reconnaissance drone

Missiles

• AAM-A-1 Firebird
• ADM-160 MALD

See also

• Ryan Airfield

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ryan Aeronautical Company.

• Ryan Aeronautical – Port of San Diego
• Ryan Aeronautical Collection – San Diego Air & Space Museum
• The Ryan Aeronautical Photo Collection – Flickr