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.
These photographs are of Test Pilots,Engineers,and various research and production aircraft flown on test flights mostly from the late 1940's through to the present day. Most of these have been kindly signed by those depicted
Thursday, January 22, 2009
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.