Bald eagle,
Is yours a restoration or a repro? I see nothig wrong with either. You have one and I don't! Ty has always said he'd like to build a radial reproduction because he loved the way the hisso variant flew.
The wing of the Spirit has the same wing rib but the spars are quite different, larger and, much lighter than the M-1's. there's no way the M-1's spars could carry that fuel load, simply by extending 5' at each tip.
Lindbergh chose Ryan as a fall back position and for propaganda purposes. Can't say more, at this time, but we've got the documentation. As far as how much M-1 is in the Spirit? It's now fairly conclusive that the Spirit was derived from Ryan M-3 C which had newr spar design and fuselage frame is dimensionally identical. Differencecs occur in a few diagonals of the front cockpit/fuel bay.
Part of the myth is that Lindbergh chose to locate the pilot's location aft of main fuel tank because it was "safer". While it may have worked out that way, it should be noted that ALL Ryan's of the M series, including the Spirit, had the pilot in the exact same position. The fuel HAD to go where it did. Pilot's location could not be anywhere else using the basic M fuselage designs. When the Wright j-5 was adapted to the M-1, it used the same engine mount (and distance from "firewall") as used on Spirit, despite latter being 2' longer in aft fuselage.
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