@ Vacaville, CA
June 2024
An unremarkable photo of a Ryan STA in the Rowland Freedom Center Aviation Museum collection. It turns out this is the same aircraft that used to be displayed on the mezzanine at the Nut Tree shop along I-80. That location was a frequent stop for me driving to and from college, lot of fond memories perusing the aviation books and posters and admiring the Ryan (which used to have a red, white & blue livery). The ST (“Sport Trainer”) would be the first design of the Ryan Aeronautical Company in 1933. (Note-T. Claude Ryan also designed the Spirit of St. Louis but under a different Ryan company) First flown in 1934, the ST would go on to spawn a number of variants including the wartime PT-22 Recruit trainer aircraft.
