Again my thanks to Jim Schubert from Pugetopia for kindly
gifting the kit, and to Vic Seeley, its creator.
As many of you know this design evolved through many steps
to become (among others) Lindy’s plane, the Ryan NYP.
I hope my Canadian modeling friends will like this winter
endeavor, together with my Alaskan modeling friend who loves anything on skis
and floats.
For the step-by-step, detailed building article, see here:
I am adding now (November 1st 2014) a very interesting and well-written text on this subject by
Diana Trafford, niece of Quebec bush pilot Howard Watt, who piloted and owned this very plane. She is a member of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society:
(Diana's text starts):
Ryan M-2 (G-CAJK)
Only
one Ryan M-2 was ever licensed in Canada. That plane landed in Toronto on March
5, 1928, with Howard Watt at the controls. The flight from Buffalo took 80
minutes, following the 125-mile route around the shore of Lake Ontario. The
plane had been purchased by Manitoba Basin Mines and would operate out of The
Pas, Manitoba. Howard was hired as manager of air operations.
The Ryan’s
arrival in Toronto was greeted by headlines in the Toronto Star proclaiming
“Plane Like Lindy’s Lands at Leaside.” Just a year earlier, in May 1927,
Charles Lindbergh had made his solo flight from New York to Paris in a modified
Ryan M-2, the Spirit of St. Louis. Not surprisingly, the Canadian Ryan was
nicknamed ʺThe Spirit of the Pasʺ.
The
earlier model Ryan M-1 monoplane was developed in 1926 to carry the U. S. mail between
Seattle and Los Angeles. The M series featured a wooden parasol wing mounted
above and directly onto the fuselage. This arrangement gave a clear view ahead
and to the sides. The pilot sat in the rear cockpit, while 2 passengers and
luggage – or 4 or 5 standard mail bags – could be carried in the front cockpit.
The fuselage was made of steel tubing covered with fabric. The dappled effect
of the metal cowl and covered wheels became a trademark of the Ryan M-1s and
M-2s.
Some 19
Ryan M-2s were produced, a couple with glassed-in cockpits. Alan Renga of the
San Diego Air and Space Museum told me that it is hard to give an exact number
because the two models went through production at the same time. In any event,
G-CAJK was construction number 22. It was built in 1927 by B. F. Mahoney
Aircraft of San Diego and was originally powered by a 180 hp Hisso engine,
giving an airspeed of about 105 mph.
NASA
engineer Fitz Walker called the Ryan M-2 “one of the most successful civilian
aircraft of the mid-1920s… (It) was so cheap to operate that freight and
passenger service companies could actually turn a profit. It proved that there
was a future in commercial aviation.”
In
January 1930, Manitoba Basin Mining sold the Ryan M-2, and in June that year
Howard bought it from the dealer with some 300 hours on its log. Howard was
tied up flying air mail on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec,
but he managed to install a new engine, a 9-cylinder, 200 hp Wright-Whirlwind
J4B – the same engine used by Pacific Air Transport in their Ryans on their
West Coast U.S. air mail route. This gave the plane a cruising speed of 115
mph. But Howard did not get around to registering the plane.
On
Sunday afternoon August 30th, 1931, a sharp-eyed government aviation
inspector spotted the plane flying at the Canadian Air Express field on
Dufferin Street, Toronto. Watt had his knuckles rapped. He was forbidden to fly
the Ryan until it had been inspected and a certificate issued. Desperate to fly
the plane in the Ontario Air Derby a week later, he appealed to the authorities
in Ottawa. He was lucky. A permanent license for G-CAJK as a private aircraft was
issued dated August 31, 1931.
Once winter came, the Watt brothers – Howard and Bruce – were working in
the Lower St. Lawrence, where their specialty was transporting bush workers
between the pulp and paper operations on the North Shore and their home
villages on the South Shore. In early 1932, Bruce was flying the Ryan M-2 for
Howard. For example, an entry in the airport register for Rimouski, Quebec,
shows that G-CAJK with Bruce Watt as pilot arrived from Montreal on January 29,
1932, and departed on February 2 for Anticosti Island.
Just two
weeks later, Bruce was in hot water. Or more to the point, he was very nearly
in the frigid February waters of the St. Lawrence River.
On
Tuesday February 16, he took off from Matane on the South Shore at 8:30 am and flew
across the wide St. Lawrence to Clarke City on the North Shore, west of Seven
Islands. The trick was to get enough altitude that you could glide to shore or
shore ice if your single engine failed. Sure enough, as he was flying back to
Matane around noon the engine began missing, and the plane lost altitude. Bruce
made a forced landing on the pack ice about 7 miles off Les Méchins. This
village is on the Gaspé coast, about halfway between Matane and
Ste-Anne-des-Monts. Abandoning the plane, the pilot and passengers jumped from
one ice floe to another trying to get to shore. After two hours of grueling
effort, they were rescued in a rowboat by a daring man from Les Méchins who had
seen their predicament.
Now
Bruce was really in hot water. This time with A. T. Cowley, Superintendent of
Air Regulations for the Canadian government. Bruce’s commercial pilot’s license
was suspended until May 31, 1932, for undertaking commercial work when the
plane had only a private license. Bruce admitted that he had been carrying
passengers at $30 an hour in a plane which Cowley himself had refused to
license commercially when it was owned by Manitoba Basin Mining. Bruce must
have been a charmer. Apparently his commercial license was reinstated before
the term of suspension was completed. There is a letter on file from him
thanking Squadron Leader Cowley for this.
Meanwhile
the Ryan continued its voyage down the river on its own little ice pan.
Recovery efforts were thwarted by the ice pack blocking most of the Gulf and by
heavy squalls blowing in the area. The last sighting of G-CAJK was by Hubert
Auclair who telegrammed Ottawa to say: “We saw the lost plane passing by on
February 29 at 8 am about two miles from Rivière-à-Claude.” Like many a sailor,
Canada’s only Ryan M-2 was lost at sea, and went to a
cold and watery grave.
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