Dutch Flats Airport/Ryan Airport
Semi-Historical Scenery by Christopher Tarana for FS2002 (FS2004*)
March 14. 2012
christophertarana@gmail.com
The easiest way to load this scenery the first time is to go to Create Flight>Current Location [change]>Search Addon Scenery>DutchFlats.
This scenery does come with two flights for FS2002 - Cessna 172 At Dutch Flats.FLT, and Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis At Dutch Flats.FLT
These flights will also put you on the runway at Dutch Flats.
This airport was established by the founder of Ryan Aircraft, Claude Ryan.
According to the AIAA report Historic Aerospace Site: Dutch Flats Airport: As business expanded, Ryan found a new location on a salt flat called Dutch Flats,
adjacent to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot. In the spring of 1923, he moved his operations there & paid a $15 per month rental fee. He managed to build a hangar & a small office building. The new location on the corner of Tide Street (later renamed Barnett Avenue) and Midway Drive (a dirt path at the time) provided a boom to business.
He offered free plane parking to other pilots & increased his business by hiring a full-time mechanic. His sightseeing business also expanded, and he & his mechanic, Hawley Bowlus, experimented with increasing the size of airplanes to accommodate more passengers. He took on a partner, B. Franklin Mahoney, and on 3/1/25,
they debuted the first year-round, regularly-scheduled passenger airline, the Los Angeles - San Diego Air Line. It continued for about a year & a half.
According to the AIAA report Historic Aerospace Site: Dutch Flats Airport: By 1925, Ryan was becoming more interested in manufacturing his own planes.
His first, the Ryan M-1 (M for monoplane, 1 for first in a series), was an externally-braced, open-cockpit, high-wing plane, with a 36' span.
With orders coming in at a rapid rate for the M-1, Ryan leased an old fish cannery about 2.5 miles south of Dutch Flats to build his mail plane.
Ryan had begun work on an M-2, but by the end of 1926, his partnership with Frank Mahoney was dissolved, with Mahoney keeping Ryan Airlines.
Ryan received a telegram in February 1927 asking if his little company could build a plane capable of a transatlantic flight. According to the AIAA report Historic Aerospace Site: Dutch Flats Airport: Miraculously, the Spirit of St. Louis, named for the city of its investors, was built in 60 days.
According to the AIAA report Historic Aerospace Site: Dutch Flats Airport: On 4/28/27, Lindbergh made the first flight from Dutch Flats Airport. Essentially all of the employees that built the Spirit came to the field to witness this historic flight. At some point in 1927, B.F. Mahoney apparently attempted to capitalize on the association of the property as Lindbergh's starting point, and renamed the field Mahoney Airport. A 1927 photo of an entrance sign showed Mahoney Airport, Where Lindbergh Started. The directory described Mahoney as a commercial airport, located at 3200 Barnett Avenue, directly opposite Marine Barracks.
* - I don't have FS2004 for testing, but I have been assured by some very nice guys that do have it that the scenery works great!
Scenery Editor:
Airport v2.60 by Pascal Meziat, Brian McWilliams, Tom Hiscox, and Manfred Moldenhauer.
Scenery Macros:
hgrhqa11 By Robert Waszkiewicz
Ryan Sign By Christopher Tarana
Installation Instructions:
1. Extract all files to a temporary directory.
2. Move the Flights Folder to your Main FS2002 folder.
3. Make a new folder named DutchFlats.
4. Move scenery and texture folders into the DutchFlats folder.
5. Move DutchFlats folder into your FS2002 ADDON SCENERY folder.
6. Use the Scenery Library to add the scenery to FS2002.
