The Ryan Brougham was a small single-engine airliner produced in the United States in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Its design was reminiscent of the M-1 mailplane first produced by Ryan in 1926, and like it, was a high-wing, strut-braced monoplane of conventional design.
Unlike the M-1, however, the Brougham had a fully enclosed cabin for the pilot and four passengers. The Brougham prototype was derived from the later M-2 and was powered by a 150 hp Hisso engine.
The first production B-1 Brougham was ordered by a local hotel owner, but was delivered instead to well-known pilot Frank Hawks and was named "The Gold
Bug".
Hawks renamed his B-1 "Spirit of San Diego" and flew to Washington with his wife to greet the triumphant Lindbergh. In the ensuing glare of publicity, Hawks was hired by the Ryan Aircraft company to be its official representative.
Another reason for the success of the Brougham was its performance at the 1927 National Air Races in Spokane, Washington where Hawks, who had obtained a contract with Maxwell House Coffee, with the now renamed "Miss Maxwell House" came in first for speed in the Detroit news Air Transport Speed and Efficiency Trophy Race
Charles Lindbergh had come to the factory to examine that first B-1, but had instead ordered a completely new aircraft to his specifications. He used the Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis on his record-breaking transatlantic flight of 1927.
right after the Lindbergh flight the B1 was the best selling plane in the US and this continued until the summer of 1928, when unsold planes began to pile up at San Diego. The company moved to St Louis and finally Detroit.
They even customized the one above, the Pride of Pittsburg, to fly the MGM lion across country in 1927.... it crashed of course. We all know cats love to fly.
Imagine being the pilot, in the plane with a lion, that just crashed.
Imagine being the guys who showed up to the crash site in the canyons... with a lion that is in a plane, that just crashed.