Founded 1928 at St Louis, Missouri, as Mahoney-Ryan
Aircraft Corporation, deriving from Ryan Airlines,
which began operations on U.S. West Coast in 1922, and
in 1926 began manufacture of Ryan M-1 mailplane from
which Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic Ryan NYP Spirit
of St Louis was developed in 1927. Commercial version of the latter, Ryan Brougham, was built in quantity. Ryan
merged with Detroit Aircraft Corporation in 1929, but
DAC did not survive the slump in 1930-1931. T. Claude
Ryan formed Ryan Aeronautical Company in 1933-1934
and produced the S-T training monoplane, forerunner of
a series of successful
FR-1 Fireball
Ryan trainers. The YO-51 Dragonfly
of 1940 was observation monoplane built for the
USAAC. A new fighter for the U.S. Navy in 1943 reflected
a "belt and braces" outlook on the new gas turbine engine,
having a mixed powerplant comprising a conventional
piston engine and rear-fuselage jet. Known as the FR-1
Fireball, it was too late to see operational service in Second
World War. Acquired design and manufacturing rights of
Navion four-seat all-metal monoplane from North American
Aviation in 1947 and put it into quantity production.
Ryan developed to a mid-1950s USAF contract
the X-13 Vertijet, a delta-wing vertical-take-off jet with
Rolls-Royce Avon engine. A flex-wing research aircraft was
built in 1961, and the XV-5A lift-fan research aircraft followed
in 1964. Development of the "fan-in-wing" VTOL
principle continued with two prototype aircraft, later
restyled XV-5B.
