Serial Number

Model

Registration

Date of Manufacturing

ATC

Price (USD)

Engine

Propeller

Current Status

History

The aircraft was originally sold to famed Aerobatic Pilot, Bettie Lund, later (Mrs. Cary) and delivered by T. Claude Ryan on October 7th, 1936. She was previously married to popular air-show performer, Freddie Lund, who was killed in an air race in 1931.

She proclaimed to Claude Ryan, “it’s a great ship” on delivery. Frank Tomick was with her and on their way back to Burbanks Lockheed Air Terminal they had a forced landing which was successfully accomplished by Tomick, no reason for the failure is known.

Bettie purchased the Ryan as she thought it might be fun for aerobatics. She had earned her living doing air-shows throughout the East in a Waco Taperwing. She found that the “boys” on the West coast did not like the Waco as much, but they praised the Ryan. She flew it mostly around the Los Angeles area for pleasure and never did any professional flying with it.

The next owner was Ben Ashford, a student in the Ryan School of Aeronautics first in San Diego and later in Los Angeles.

It was sold to Harry M. Marshall, who was a flight instructor doing most of his instructing in the Ryan at the L.A metropolitan Airport, Van Nuys, California.

On October 30th, 1939 at about 09:30 am he had a student pilot by the name of James P. Twomey in the plane and they were doing take offs and landings. A takeoff toward the south was made, they then circled the field and commenced the final approach when the plane was observed to stall at an altitude of approximately 100 feet during a power off glide to the airport. The ship fell to the left and power was applied but recovery was not possible and it struck the ground on its left wing and nose at a point approximately 1000 feet north of the airfield boundary. Both men were killed, Marshall in the front seat, and Twomey in the rear.

Subsequent inspection of the wreckage disclosed that the airplane struck the ground with the flaps fully extended and that both throttle position and propeller damage indicated that the engine was developing power at impact. It was established from Twomey`s logbook that he had received approximately 25 hours of flight instruction from Marshall but that he had never soloed.

The probable cause of the accident was that the pilot stalled at low altitude, during a landing attempt.

The remains of the airplane were later sold to Arthur L. Novotney, supervisor of the aircraft manufacturing division of Curtis-Wright at Glendale, who planned to rebuild the Ryan. At this same ti9me Ryan ST-A N16037 (SN 126) was based at the school and tied up with an ownership problem in court. This was around the first part of 1940. According to CAA (FAA) files the last registered owner was Aircraft Industries Company, of Glendale. The aircraft was completely burned in a Hangar fire at Grand Centrals Aircraft Industries in 1940-41. Final disposition unknown.

Ownership History

• Bettie Lund, Troy Ohio;

• Ben T. Ashford, Ryan School, San Diego, California, and Los Angeles, California;

• Harry M. Marshall, Burbank, California;

• Arthur L. Novotney, Curtis-Wright technical Institute, Grand Central Airport, Glendale, California;

• Aircraft Industries Company, Glendale, California.

Current Ownership

Unknown

Notes

Via FAA records, N16041 is listed as destroyed, and cancelled on June 19th, 1944. The last owner was:

Aircraft Industries, 1224 Air Way, Glendale, California, 91201 U.S.A.

N16041 was previously assigned to a Bell 47J helicopter, based in Sullivan, Wisconsin, and shows as expired from September 30th, 2013.

The registration is currently on hold

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