Al W.Conover 1920-1949

The one and only Ryan Model 29 was simply a Model 28 with a fin fillet and it’s radial piston engine replaced by a General Electric 1700shp T100 T31-GE-2 Turboprop driving a Hamilton Standard four blade Super Hydromatic propeller while still retaining the General Electric I16 turbojet in the tail. First flown in November ’46 a turboprop height record of 39,160’ was achieved by test pilot Al Conover. The Dark Shark had a top speed of 500 mph compared with 404 mph for the Fireball.