Cessna Collection
Cessna Aircraft List
1929 Cessna AW
Donation: North Cascades Vintage Aircraft Museum
Engine: Warner Scarab, 110 HP
This project is awaiting restoration but is on the display floor at the museum for all to enjoy.
After leaving the Travel Air Company, which he had founded with Lloyd Stearman and Walter Beech, Clyde Cessna joined forces with Victor Roos to found the Cessna-Roos Aircraft Company, renamed the Cessna Aircraft Company after Roos’ departure in December 1927. Cessna’s first production model was the Model A, which was fitted with various engines over its production life. The airframe is conventional tube and fabric construction and the wing is a full cantilever design, i.e. it has no supporting struts. This design was the cause of a long delay in certification because government regulators had to be convinced that a strutless design could be strong enough for safety. There’s a famous photo of the prototype Cessna Model A with seventeen men standing on the wing. Between 1928 and 1930 Cessna built 48-50 of the four-seat Model AW, fitted with a 110 HP Warner Scarab radial engine. In 1928 Cessna test pilot Earl Rowland, flying the aerodynamically clean Model AW, won the Class A Transcontinental Air Derby.
Additional Specifications:
Cruise: 105 MPH
Top Speed: 125 MPH
Empty Weight: 1225 lbs
Gross Weight: 2260 lbs
Wing Span: 40'
Length: 24'9"
Height: 6'11"
Service Ceiling: 12,000'
Climb in 1 Minute: 620' at sea level
Approximate Number Built: 48
(Data pulled from Joseph Juptner's U.S. Civil Aircraft series.)
1940 Cessna Airmaster C-165
Donor: Wayne Edsall
Engine: Warner Scarab, 165 HP
In the depression of the early 1930's Cessna Aircraft was essentially defunct. As the economy improved Clyde Cessna's nephew Dwane Wallace designed a stylish, cantilever-winged 4-seat airplane and persuaded Cessna to revive his company to produce it. The C-165 Airmaster was the final and highest-powered version of that series and it was the last tube and fabric airplane that Cessna produced. The cantilever wing had no drag-producing struts and braces so it slipped through the air easily, prompting Joseph Juptner to write, "no airplane of the time could match it for efficiency."
Additional Specifications:
Cruise: 157 MPH
Top Speed: 169 MPH
Empty Weight: 1400 lbs
Gross Weight: 2350 lbs
Wing Span: 34'2"
Length: 25'
Height: 7'
Service Ceiling: 19,300'
Climb in 1 Minute: 925' at sea level
Approximate Number Built: 228
(Data pulled from Joseph Juptner's U.S. Civil Aircraft series.)
1943 Cessna UC-78 "Bobcat"
Acquired with funds from Founding Memberships.
Engine: Jacobs R-915-7, 330 HP
The T-50 (civilian designation) Bobcat was Cessna’s first twin engine aircraft. It was a multiengine trainer (AT-8, AT-17) that was also used as a cargo and personnel carrier (T-50, UC-78). Its airframe is steel tube and fabric and the wing structure is wood. As a military trainer in the early 40’s this airplane acquired many nicknames, several based on its wood construction. Among them “Bamboo Bomber”, “Double-breasted Cub”, “Useless 78” and “Rhapsody in Glue”. The Sky King television series of the 1950’s flew a Bobcat in the first year of the series.
Additional Specifications:
Cruise: 150 MPH
Top Speed: 179 MPH
Empty Weight: 4050 lbs
Gross Weight: 5700 lbs
Wing Span: 41'11"
Length: 32'9"
Height: 9'1"
Service Ceiling: 15,000'
Climb in 1 Minute: 1525' at sea level
Approximate Number Built: 5399