Serial Number

Model

Registration

Date of Manufacturing

ATC

Price (USD)

Engine

Propeller

Current Status

History

A group of amateur flyers in Seattle, Washington, formed a small corporation, headed by owner Leonard Peterson, a commercially rated pilot.

Mr. Peterson received word of the new Ryan ST being built in San Diego, and went to see it. Returning to Seattle he convinced Mr. E.R. Weller, of Mercer Island, Washington, to buy one, suggesting it be used for student training by the corporation, and paying him ten dollars for every hour it was used. Weller agreed, and the order was placed. It was the first production ST, and the first one sold (F.O.B. Seattle)

Claude Ryan with one of his students made the first delivery flight. They encountered poor weather in southern Oregon, so they headed west to the coast and landed on the beach. Landing in soft sand they ended up on their nose, breaking the propeller. Within a few days a new propeller was installed and the aircraft completed its journey on April 6th, 1935.

The new owners had considerable bad luck during the time they owned it. Poorly installed wheel disc brakes caused numerous “nose ups” and “nose overs”.

After it had been operating for about 30 days, two student flyers rented it one day. While flying over lake Washington the engine quit. They landed in the lake and the plane sank in about 50 feet of water. They were rescued by boat and were somewhat embarrassed.

The ship was eventually salvaged, and the cost of recovering it, and repairs was over one thousand dollars. Weller decided against any further renting to people and only flew it himself on occasion.

He had been flying it for about a year when he decided to loan it to an attorney friend to fly to see his dying father in Idaho. While planning to land at Pasco, Washington for fuel, he mistook a rough field for the airport and cracked up, killing both himself and his sister passenger. The airplane was demolished.

In order to recover any financial loss from the original price, Mr Weller sold the only salvageable thing from the airplane, the Menasco engine for $200.00.

Date of the crash was April 7th, 1937

Ownership History

• E.R. Weller, Seattle, Washington

Current Ownership

• None

• N14909 Currently assigned to a Bellanca 17-30A

Notes

Note: this aircraft was handmade by the Ryan Factory, while jigs were being made for mass production of the ST series.

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