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Historic Ryan Aeronautical Facility
Aviation pioneer T Claude Ryan started the first regular commercial passenger service
from San Diego to Los Angeles in the 1920s. You may recognize the name Ryan. It
was Ryan's company that built the "Spirit of St. Louis," the plane Charles Lindbergh
flew from New York to Paris marking the first solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic.
Now, some of the memories associated with Ryan's company, Ryan Aeronautical, are
preserved in a website activated by the Port of San Diego in partnership with the
San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.
View photos and historical information at RyanAero.org.
The website is designed to offer a glimpse into the history of the aviation manufacturer
so visitors can grasp the company's historic significance and its role in San Diego's
aviation history.
In 2008, the Port initiated a project to remove hazardous construction materials
from the former Teledyne Ryan Aeronautics site adjacent to the San Diego International
Airport. This initiative included the demolition of buildings previously used in
the design and manufacture of aviation related products. The property is located
in the 2700 block of North Harbor Drive, south of the runway and east of the Lindbergh
Field commuter terminal.
Ryan's company, eventually known as Teledyne Ryan Industries and later Allegheny
Industries, operated for more than 60 years manufacturing aircraft, including a
vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, the Ryan X-13 Vertijet..
The website, which memorializes the company's contribution to aviation history,
was created as part of the project and as a way of preserving some of the history
of the famed aerospace firm and its founder, who operated the area's first flight
school.
The website features a variety of historical information, including an interactive
map of the building locations, descriptions of the manufacturing areas and several
photos showing some of the planes that were built by the company.
The Environmental Impact Report (EIR), prepared for this work, identified some of
these buildings as comprising the Ryan Aeronautical Company Historic District. Consequently,
to mitigate for the demolition of these buildings, the EIR required the Port to
develop a display or interpretive material for public exhibition concerning the
history of the project area.
The preparation of interpretive material, as required by the EIR, has been completed.
In order to make this material readily available to libraries, schools, museums,
archives, curation facilities, and the general public a web-based venue was selected
as being the most effective and convenient.
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