The Ryan Aeronautical Company was founded by T. Claude Ryan in

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, California, in 1934. It became part of Teledyne in 1969, and of

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...

when the latter company purchased Ryan in 1999. Ryan built several historically and technically significant aircraft, including four innovative

V/STOL A vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) aircraft is an airplane able to takeoff and landing, take-off or land vertically or on short runways. VTOL, Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft are a subset of V/STOL craft that do ...

designs, but its most successful production aircraft was the Ryan Firebee line of unmanned drones used as

target drone A target drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle, generally remote controlled, usually used in the training of anti-aircraft crews. One of the earliest drones was the British DH.82 Queen Bee, a variant of the Tiger Moth trainer aircraft operation ...

s and unmanned air vehicles.

History

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. T.C. Ryan, whose previous companies were best known for building

Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York (state), New York to Paris, a distance of . His aircra ...

's transatlantic '' Spirit of St. Louis'', actually had no part in building the famous aircraft. 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. The new company's first aircraft was the S-T Sport Trainer, a low-wing tandem-seat monoplane with a Menasco B-4 Pirate

straight-4 A straight-four engine (also referred to as an inline-four engine) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout ( ...

engine. Five were built before production switched to the Ryan ST-A Aerobatic with a more powerful 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 Menasco C-4S. In 1937 and 1938, a second civilian aircraft model was introduced, the S-C Sport Coupe, or SC-W with a 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.

USAAC trainers

Interest from the

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

followed. The Menasco engines proved unreliable, and instead Kinner

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating engine, reciprocating type internal combustion engine, internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinder (engine), cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. ...

s 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 A short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft is a fixed-wing aircraft that can takeoff/land on short runways. Many STOL-designed aircraft can operate on airstrips with harsh conditions (such as high altitude or ice). STOL aircraft, including tho ...

techniques in its YO-51 Dragonfly liaison and observation craft, but only three were built.

Postwar

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

light aircraft A light aircraft is an aircraft that has a Maximum Takeoff Weight, maximum gross takeoff weight of or less.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 308. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. Light aircraft are use ...

from

North American Aviation North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F- ...

, selling it to both military and civilian customers. 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 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

vertical flight. Other Ryan

designs included the VZ-3 Vertiplane. Ryan developed the highly accurate radar system used on the

Apollo Lunar Module The Apollo Lunar Module (LM ), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed sp ...

. 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.

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

Products

Aircraft

Missiles

AAM-A-1 Firebird The AAM-A-1 Firebird was an early American air-to-air missile, developed by the Ryan Aeronautical Company. The first air-to-air missile program developed for the United States Air Force, the Firebird was extensively tested in the late 1940s; altho ...

* ADM-160 MALD

References

External links

Ryan Aeronautical – Port of San Diego

Ryan Aeronautical Collection – San Diego Air & Space Museum

The Ryan Aeronautical Photo Collection – Flickr
{{Authority control Northrop Grumman Manufacturing companies based in San Diego Defunct manufacturing companies based in California Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States 1934 establishments in California Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1934 Technology companies established in 1934 American companies established in 1934 Defunct technology companies based in California Technology companies based in San Diego