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Ryan X-13

Ryan X-13
In April 1947, the U.S. Navy awarded the Ryan Aeronautical Company of San Diego a contract to explore the feasibility of a pure-jet vertical take-off and landing aircraft (VTOL). Almost seven years of technical study and experimentation followed. Then, in 1954, Ryan was awarded a contract to construct two X-13 aircraft, and this time, the contract was with the U.S. Air Force. The first aircraft, number 41619, was completed in the fall of 1955, and on December tenth of that year, the X-13 Vertijet exhibited here was test flown for the first time at Edwards Air Force Base. It was fitted with tricycle landing gear to evaluate the X-13's conventional flying qualities. After another year of intensive testing, the X-13 made the world's first jet VTOL transition from horizontal flight to vertical flight and back again. This historic flight occurred on November 28, 1956. Then, on April 11, 1957, the first vertical take-off, rotation to horizontal flight, return to vertical flight and landing took place. This marked the first full-cycle VTOL jet flight in history.

Ryan X-13
On July 30, 1957, the X-13 was demonstrated by test pilot Peter F. Girard to a crowd of some 100,000 people in front of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. This unique aircraft took off vertically from its launching platform, rotated to horizontal flight, and flew the same course as the Wright military aircraft on its acceptance flight exactly 48 years earlier. The X-13 then returned to vertical flight and landed - all within a seven-minute period! The X-13 program was completed in the fall of 1958. This unique plane had proven the VTOL flight, on jet thrust alone, was both feasible and practical. The success of the X-13's test program, was indeed historic. It led the way for other VTOL aircraft developments such as the Harrier vertical and short take-off and landing aircraft (V/STOL). Both the U.S. Marines and the British currently use Harrier aircraft. The San Diego Aerospace Museum's X-13 is on loan from the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C. The only other X-13 is in storage at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

           Length......... 23 feet 5 inches      Gross Weight........ 7,313 lbs.	   
           Height......... 15 feet 3 inches      Maximum altitude.... 30,000 ft.	  
           Wingspan................ 21 feet      Range.................. 167 nm	   
           Wing area............ 191 sq. ft.     Maximum speed......... 483 mph

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