Serial Number

Model

Registration

Date of Manufacturing

ATC

Price (USD)

Engine

Propeller

Current Status

History

The airplane was sold new on May 7, 1938 to well known Aviatrix, Laura Ingalls. She turned in a Fairchild for the Ryan. In the initial order she requested a 10 Gal. Aux fuel tank, with a flapper valve for inverted flight, a front cockpit cover and an extension to the pilot’s control stick.

Miss Ingalls used the ship extensively for air show work and unfortunately experienced her first ground loop at a show in Tucson, Arizona, on July 1, 1940. She used to say there are two kinds of Ryan pilots, those who have ground looped and those who are about to.

Ingalls set a great many distance records for flying in the late 30`s, including distance and aerobatic records. She was also accused of being a foreign spy for Germany and spent almost two years in prison, from 1942 to 1943. She passed away on January 10, 1967 at the age of 63.

On March 20, 1941 she sold the Ryan to Howard W. Pember in Troy, New York.

It was used at Troy in the CPTP program up until it was totalled in an accident on July 2, 1941.

Killed in the accident was Instructor Aaron O. Allen and student pilot Alexander Hopkins Campbell. Campbell was from San Antonio, Texas and a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Junior.

The airplane actually crashed on the Stephen Bingham farm on Best Road near West Sand lake. It is believed the engine quit although one report stated the theory that Campbell may have frozen on the controls. The airplane was seen by several witnesses to dive almost vertically into the ground.

Several weeks later the Civil Aeronautics Board blamed the crash on the fact that six screws from the rudder fairing were missing which caused the fairings to part with the rudder, thereby jamming the rudder and elevators.

No further details known.

Ownership History

• Laura Ingalls, Union Air Terminal, Burbank, California, and Great Neck, Long Island, New York;
• Howard W. Pember, President of Troy Flyers Inc., Municipal Airport, Troy, New York.

Current Ownership

Unknown

Notes

Via FAA records, N18901 is currently assigned to a Pegasus Powered parachute, based in Wilmington, Illinois.

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