Thread by @KSArchaeologist

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my series on Kansas history! This is post 51 and today’s story is on a major aviation pioneer whose company still thrives in Kansas to this day, enjoy!

Clyde Cessna was born on December 5th, 1879 in Montgomery County, Iowa. When he was only two years old his family moved to Rago, Kansas in Kingman County west of Wichita. When he was an adult, he moved to Enid, Oklahoma and worked at a car dealership there. He moved to New York to work at the Queen Aeroplane Company after attending an air show in Kansas which gave him a new passion for flight and airplanes. In 1911 he constructed a plane called “Silverwing” which after multiple failed attempts had a successful 5 mile flight at the Great Salt Plains in Alfalfa County, Oklahoma. This was the first airplane built and flown on the Great Plains. He continued developing airplanes through the 1910s including “The Comet” with which he set a new national airspeed record of 124.6mph on July 5th, 1917 as well as a new national distance record on the same flight of 76 miles between Blackwell, OK and Wichita, KS. With the start of World War I his income ground to a halt causing him to leave the field of aviation for nearly 8 years.

In 1925, Cessna along with Walter Beech (later creating Beechcraft) and Lloyd Stearman (later creating Stearman Aircraft) formed the Travel Air Manufacturing company in Wichita which rapidly became one of the leading aircraft manufacturers in the nation. Two years later the three men split up to form their own companies leading to Clyde Cessna and fellow aircraft pioneer Victor Roos creating the Cessna Aircraft Corporation. The company was an enormous success with 1000 planes being constructed in 1929 alone, but then the Great Depression struck. By 1931 they had declared bankruptcy and closed the company entirely and it would not reopen until 1934 when Cessna sold what remained of the company to his nephews Dwane and Dwight Wallace.

In 1940 the Wallace brothers signed a contract with the US Army for 33 Cessna T-50 aircraft which would be used for training the Army Air Corps (later known as the US Air Force), and signed a similar contract with the Royal Canadian Air Force for 180 of the same aircraft. The Cessna corporation returned to commercial production of aircraft in 1946 following the end of World War II developing multiple new planes and their first helicopter in 1955. In 1956 they introduced the Cessna 172 aircraft. This plane is now the most produced aircraft in all of aviation history, with over 44,000 being constructed in the 70 years since its release. The 172 is still being manufactured today solidifying its and Cessna’s place in history and the record books.

Clyde Cessna passed away on December 20th, 1954 at the age of 74 in Wichita and was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Kingman County. In 1978 he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame and was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame in 1983. Hope that you all enjoyed!