cloudster

Not "Don" Burnett, but Daniel "Dapper Dan" Burnett.

Not "Don" Burnett, but Daniel "Dapper Dan" Burnett, next to the Douglas Cloudster.

Mahoney came up with an idea for an airline. "You've got the airplanes here doing a lot of local flying," he said to Ryan. "Did you ever think about running a schedule to Los Angeles back and forth on a daily schedule basis?" Ryan had doubts. Undeterred, Mahoney pointed out that "people are more ready to accept flying than you may think." And he offered to put up the money for an airline for a share of the profits. Ryan agreed, and the Los Angeles­ San Diego Air Line came into being on March 1, 1925. The fare was $14.50 one way, $22.50 round trip. It was claimed to be the first airline in the United States to operate all year on a regular schedule. On April 19, 1925, Mahoney bought a half interest in Ryan's operations--the airline, aviation school and the charter and sightseeing business--for $7,500. The two became partners under the name Ryan Airlines. www.charleslindbergh.com/plane/mahoney.asp In the same year, the partners bought a Cloudster (for "Cloud Duster"), the first airplane built by Donald Douglas, for $6,000. The huge, open-cockpit, 56-foot-wingspan biplane with a 660-gallon fuel capacity had failed in an attempt to make the first nonstop transcontinental flight in 1921. Ryan and Mahoney converted it for the Los Angeles­San Diego run by building a carpeted and lighted cabin for five passengers, with plush seats on each side of a center aisle. A two-place open cockpit for a pilot and co-pilot was located in front of the cabin. Ryan Airlines built its first airplane in the fall of 1925. It was named the M-1 (M for monoplane, 1 for first series), and was based on a sketch by Claude Ryan. The fabric-covered M-1 had a tubular-steel fuselage. Its 36-foot wood wing, set above the fuselage and supported by outside braces, resulted in an unobstructed view. Doors on the left side gave access to the open front mail-and-passenger cockpit and to the open rear cockpit for the pilot. The burnished, dappled effect of the metal cowl and covered wheels became a feature of later aircraft. The first M-1, powered by a 150-hp Hispano-Suiza engine, flew in February 1926.