Paul Ryan Important airline inventor from P'Town

Thanks brother Jim!  I have heard a lot of this fellow, but I do not know him.

Sam
High Notes 02-03-2011




In 1947, William G. Ryan, his wife Fay, and their twin sons, Paul and Roger, lived above the L and G Grocery, operated by John M. Lawson, at 212 ½ Market Street, and William was a supervisor at The Portsmouth Gas Company.

Paul and Roger graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1949.

By 1959, son Paul had graduated from Ohio State University with a B. S. in electrical engineering, and had founded, Dytronics Company, Inc. in the basement of his house in Columbus, Ohio, with the purpose of developing precision instrumentation for aerospace applications. “Significant contributions were made to the Apollo space program, with special recognition for developing a primary method of measuring the phase angle between two electrical signals. The resulting product, called the ‘Primary Phase Angle Standard’ was supplied to every aerospace metrology laboratory, both government and private as well as the metrology laboratories of all NATO nations,” according to information in the September 20, 2010 brochure distributed when Paul Ryan was honored at the annual OSU alumni awards luncheon.

The OSU College of Engineering, Dean Gregory Washington awarded Paul with the 2010 Lamme Medal – the highest recognition the College bestows upon a graduate.

Paul holds 11-patents, and one of his major inventions was the Ryan Stormscope.

He had a longtime interest in flying, and by 1968, had become a licensed pilot with ATP (Airline Transport Pilot) certification. He was able to use his flying abilities in his business, and while on a business trip in his own plane, he almost met major disaster by inadvertently flying into a violent thunderstorm. There was no way to avoid thunderstorms, capable of tornado-like winds which can tear the wings off any airplane.

That’s when Paul decided to devote his time to research a solution, and in 1976, eight-years after the storm incident, the Ryan Stormscope was introduced. Today, the Ryan Stormscope is widely used in all types of aircraft to guide them through threatening storms.

In 1981, Paul sold his invention to the 3M Company, and he established, Ryan International Corporation in order to continue improvement in flight safety. The resulting product, called the TAS (Traffic Advisory System), generated a map of aircraft traffic up to 50-miles away for pilot viewing. Today, many thousands of Ryan’s TAS units are used in aircraft.

In 2005, Ryan International Corporation was sold and merged with the Avidyne Corporation, a leading producer of avionics.

Mr. Ryan now lives at Muirfield Village, in Dublin, Ohio, with his wife, JoAnn (Moore). She is the daughter of Charles and Dorothy Moore, longtime restaurant operators in Portsmouth; Frisch’s and Moore’s Restaurant.

Paul and JoAnn have five children, Lee Ann, Larry, David, Dean and Gary.

Paul’s father, William Gordon Ryan, was a longtime Portsmouth Public Library board member, and the Lucasville branch is named the W. Gordon Ryan Library.

Much of the information for this column was provided by Nancy Mauk, of Stout, Ohio.



“Innovations distinguish between a leader and a follower”. Steve Jobs