Biographical Sketches

TUBAL CLAUDE RYAN

Born: January 3, 1898    In: Parsons, KS
Died: September 11, 1982    In: San Diego, CA

Tubal Claude Ryan, born in Kansas, but moved about 1912 to California where his family bought an orange grove. In 1917 he enrolled in the American School of Aviation at Venice CA, and after making one solo flight there, applied for an Army Air Service under-age waiver, was accepted and told to report at the recruiting station on Nov 11, 1918. Unfortunately for him, that was the day the Armistice was signed.

Disheartened, he went to Oregon State College to study engineering for most of a year, reapplied with the Army, and was accepted into March Field’s cadet class of 1919, where he graduated with a pursuit pilot rating. Rather than advanced training, Ryan opted for forestry patrol duty and remained in this service in the West until his enlistment ended in 1922, after which he went to San Diego and barnstormed rides to pay for his surplus JN-4 Jenny. A second JN-4 constituted the first "Ryan Flying Co" venture, and by 1923 he had managed to add six surplus Standards, which he rebuilt with five-passengers cabins and repowered with fresh new-surplus 150hp Hisso motors with financial backing from his new partner, San Diego businessman B F Mahoney. This was the start of Ryan Airlines, and it made its first of scheduled flight between San Diego and Los Angeles -- round-trip fare $29.50, one-way $17.50. A new Douglas Cloudster was added in 1925, also modified with a cabin as the first dedicated passenger plane in America.

Learning of the Postal Department’s dissatisfaction with their aging De Havilland DH-4s, he and his crew built the first true Ryan product, the M-1 (honoring partner Mahoney), to offer to air mail contractors. The ship could carry twice the load of the DH-4 at a much greater speed with less horsepower, so not surprisingly the new factory was soon turning out M-1s and B-1 Broughams as fast as they could.

Not satisfied with flying a desk, Ryan sold his manufacturing rights to Mahoney at the end of 1926, agreeing to remain as company manager for four months. In January 1927, a letter arrived from an air-mail pilot named Lindbergh, asking if they could build a plane capable of flying across the Atlantic. They could, and did build one based on the tried-and-true B-1 design, and Lindy’s Paris flight made the name of Ryan almost a household word overnight. However, that April Ryan left his company to get into aircraft engines, contracting with Germany’s Siemens-Halske for U.S. manufacturing and sales right as the Ryan-Siemens, a prosperous venture.

His Ryan Aeronautical Co. was incorporated and moved to Lindbergh Field, where it expanded with his popular flying school. There he and Millard Boyd designed the S-T series of attractive trainers that became a volume production in the mid-1930s.

Enshrined in National Aviation Hall of Fame 1974.

REFERENCES:
Ryan, The Aviator; William Wagner (McGraw-Hill 1971)

Denotes an individual known to have soloed an aircraft prior to December 16, 1917, whether they were members of the "Early Birds of Aviation" Organization or not.