Cessna Aircraft Company
2 types ยท 0 airframes
Pre-1950 Narrative
Clyde Cessna, a farmer in Rago, Kansas, built his own aircraft and flew it in June 1911. Cessna Aircraft was formed when Clyde Cessna and Victor Roos became partners in the Cessna-Roos Aircraft Company in 1927. The Cessna DC-6 earned certification on the same day as the stock market crash of 1929, October 29, 1929. In 1932, the Cessna Aircraft Company closed due to the Great Depression. However, the Cessna CR-3 custom racer made its first flight in 1933. The plane won the 1933 American Air Race in Chicago and later set a new world speed record for engines smaller than 500 cubic inches by averaging 237 mph (381 km/h).
Aircraft Types
Cessna 140
The Cessna 140 is a two-seat, single-engine light aircraft built by the Cessna Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kansas, and first flown in 1945. Introduced in 1946 alongside the simpler Cessna 120, it was a metal-fuselage, fabric-wing taildragger aimed at the postwar market for training and personal flying. The 140A of 1949 replaced the fabric wing with an all-metal one. Production of the family ended in 1951 after 7,664 aircraft, and about a third of those built are still registered today.
Cessna AT-17 Bobcat
The Cessna AT-17 Bobcat was the military form of Cessna's Model T-50, a five-seat twin-engine light transport introduced to the civil market in 1939. The United States Army took it as the AT-8 and AT-17 multi-engine trainer and, from 1942, as the UC-78 light transport; the U.S. Navy flew it as the JRC-1 and the Royal Canadian Air Force as the Crane. Built largely of wood, it earned the nickname "Bamboo Bomber" in Army service. Cessna built 5,399 aircraft of the type for civil and military use, and cheap war-surplus examples afterwards gave it a long second career in civil hands.