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SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | JULY 2021 7 By Vicki Moran, Resident As you are well aware, Solera Diamond Valley has an interesting neighbor that provides us with frequent overhead entertainment. Here is some background on this neighbor — located just north of Stetson Avenue. It all began with World War II, the U.S. Army Air Corp, and the namesake of Hemet-Ryan Airport, Tubal Claude Ryan, who had an innovative career in aviation even before showing up in Hemet. T. Claude Ryan (b1898-d1982) learned to fly in 1917 and trained with the U.S. Army Air Corps at March Field in 1921. In 1922 at the young age of 24 he established his first company, Ryan Flying Company, a flight school and sightseeing service in San Diego. In 1925, this company evolved into Ryan Airlines, the first year-round passenger airline service in the U.S., with regularly scheduled flights between San Diego and Los Angeles. In the 1930s Ryan founded the Ryan School of Aeronautics and the Ryan Aeronautical Company. The aeronautical company designed and built aircraft (and later aerospace) and was sold to Teledyne in 1968; Teledyne-Ryan was sold to Northrop-Grumman in 1999. The U.S. Army Air Corp opened the airfield in Hemet in September 1940 as a World War II pilot training base and Ryan School of Aeronautics was awarded the contract to operate the base. Now named Ryan Field, it was the largest of several nearby training bases in Hemet, Banning, Highland, and Valle Vista. During the four years the Ryan School of Aeronautics operated under this contract, about 14,000 Army cadets were taught to fly there in preparation for World War II combat missions. Mr. Ryan operated a training base in Tucson, Arizona at the same time — also aptly named Ryan Field. The airplanes used for training were primarily PT-17 Stearmans (a biplane recognizable in many WWII movies) supplemented with Ryan PT-21 and 22 Recruits. These latter planes were military- production versions of Ryan Aeronautical Company's ST-3, which was the model for the Spirit of St. Louis and commonly used as a mail plane. The ST in the name was for "Sports Trainer," and a version of this same plane won a 1937 International Aerobatic Championship. At the end of the pilot training program in 1944, Ryan Field was deactivated and turned back to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, eventually becoming Hemet-Ryan (airport code HMT), a public airport owned and operated by Riverside County Aviation Department. Many of the World War II-era structures remain at the airport making it a bit of a time capsule. More on today's Hemet-Ryan Airport to come in the August issue of The View. Derby Days Hemet-Ryan Airport History

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