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CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY HISTORY PICTURES INFORMATION SPECIFICATIONS AND FACTS
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CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY
HISTORY PICTURES INFORMATION AND FACTS

cessna 172 catalina
CESSNA AIRPLANES
Cessna 1964 C-150

CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANY

The Cessna Aircraft Company is an airplane manufacturing corporation headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Their main products are general aviation aircraft. Although they are the most well-known for their small, piston-powered aircraft, they also produce business jets.

CESSNA 195

History
The company traces its history to June 1911, when Clyde Cessna, a farmer in Rago, Kansas, built a wood-and-fabric plane and became the first person to build and fly an aircraft between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.

Clyde Cessna started his aircraft ventures in Enid, Oklahoma, testing many of his early planes on the salt flats. When bankers in Enid refused to loan him more money to build his planes, he moved to Wichita.

CESSNA 150

In 1924, Cessna partnered with Lloyd C. Stearman and Walter H. Beech to form the Travel Air, Inc., a biplane manufacturing firm. This company was based in Wichita. In 1927, Clyde Cessna left Travel Air and formed his own company, the Cessna Aircraft Company. Instead of producing biplanes, he instead decided to focus on building monoplanes. The first flew on August 13, 1927.

CESSNA 350

Cessna Aircraft Company closed its doors from 1932–1934 due to the state of the economy. In 1934, Dwane Wallace, with the help of his brother Dwight, took control of the company and began the process of building it into what would become a global success.

After World War II, Cessna created the 170, which, along with later models (notably the 172), became the most widely produced light aircraft in history. Cessna's advertising boasts that its aircraft have trained more pilots than those of any other company.

Cessna twin 340

In 1985 Cessna was bought by General Dynamics Corporation and in 1986 production of piston-engine aircraft was suspended. General Dynamics cited product liability as the cause. The then-CEO Russ Meyer said that production would resume if a more favorable product liability environment developed. In 1992, Textron Inc. bought Cessna and, after passage of the General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994, resumed production of the piston-engine 172, 182, and 206 designs.

On 27 November 2007 Textron announced that Cessna had purchased the bankrupt Columbia Aircraft company for US$26.4M and would continue production of the Columbia 350 and 400 as well as the Cessna 350 and Cessna 400 at the Columbia factory in Bend, Oregon. There had been speculation that the acquisition of the Columbia line would spell the end of the Cessna NGP project, but on September 26, 2007, Cessna Vice President for Sales, Roger Whyte, confirmed that development of the NGP project will continue, unaffected by the purchase of Columbia.

cessna 525 citation jet

Since November 2007 the company has been involved in a public controversy regarding the contracting of production of the Cessna 162 SkyCatcher to the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation of the People's Republic of China.

Currently, Cessna produces 2-, 4- and 6-place single-engine airplanes, utility turboprops, and business jets.

Marketing Initiatives
Cessna has always had an active marketing department. This was especially notable during the 1950s and 1960s. During this period, the marketing department followed the lead of Detroit automobile manufacturers and came up with many marketing slogans and buzzwords to describe Cessna’s product line in an attempt to place their products ahead of the competition.

Other manufacturers and the aviation press widely ridiculed and spoofed many of these marketing terms but between Cessna’s designers producing a product the flying public wanted and the work of the marketing department, Cessna built and sold more aircraft than any other manufacturer during the boom years of the 1960s and 1970s.

cessna jet 560 xl citation jet

Marketing buzzwords
Cessna marketing buzzwords included:

Para-Lift Flaps – these were the large fowler flaps Cessna introduced on the 170B in 1952, replacing the narrow chord plain flaps then in use.

Land-O-Matic – In 1956, Cessna introduced sprung-steel tricycle landing gear on the 172. The marketing department chose “Land-O-Matic” to imply that the these aircraft were much easier to land and take-off than the preceding conventional landing gear equipped Cessna 170. They even went as far as to say pilots could do “drive-up take-offs and drive-in landings”, implying that flying these aircraft was as easy as driving a car. In later years some Cessna models had their steel sprung landing gear replaced with steel tube gear legs. The 206 retains the original spring steel landing gear today.

Omni-Vision – This referred to the rear windows on some Cessna singles, starting with the 182 and 210 in 1962, the 172 in 1963 and the 150 in 1964. The term was intended to make the pilot feel visibility was improved on the notably poor-visibility Cessna line. The introduction of the rear window caused most models a loss of cruise speed due to the extra drag, while not adding any useful visibility.

Cushioned power – This was to announce the introduction of rubber mounts on the cowling of the 1967 model 150, in addition to the rubber mounts isolating the engine from the cabin.

Omni-Flash - This referred to the flashing beacon on the tip of the fin that could be seen all around.

Open-View – This referred to the removal of the top section of the control wheel in 1967 models. These had been rectangular, they now became “ram’s horn” shaped, thus not blocking the instrument panel as much.

Quick-Scan – Cessna introduced a new instrument panel layout in the 1960s and this buzzword was to indicate Cessna’s panels were ahead of the competition.

Nav-O-Matic - This was the name of the Cessna autopilot system, which implied the system was relatively simple.

Chinese production controversy
On 27 November 2007, Cessna announced the new Cessna 162 would be made in the People's Republic of China by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, which is a subsidiary of China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I), a Chinese government-owned consortium of aircraft manufacturers. By manufacturing the aircraft in China, Cessna reports it saved USD $71,000 in production costs per aircraft, or about 40% of the cost. A second reason cited for moving production to Shenyang Aircraft Corporation was Cessna has no plant capacity available in the USA.

Cessna received a high degree of negative feedback from 162 customers and potential customers regarding this decision. Complaints centered around the recent problems with Chinese production of other consumer products, China's human rights record, exporting of jobs, and China's less than friendly political relationship with the USA. The backlash surprised Cessna and resulted in a company public relations campaign to try to explain the decision from a business perspective and assure customers that quality of the aircraft will not be compromised. The reaction to the explanations and assurances has been overwhelmingly negative, although a small number of customers have applauded the production in China.

Cessna Citation X (10) Business Jet

Aircraft models
Cessna NGP
Cessna CH-1 Helicopter
Cessna A
Cessna BA
Cessna AW
Cessna AT-17 Bobcat
Cessna C-34 Airmaster
Cessna T-37
Cessna 120
Cessna 140
Cessna 150 Commuter, Patroller & Aerobat
Cessna 152
Cessna 160
Cessna 162 Skycatcher
Cessna 165 Airmaster
Cessna 170
Cessna 172 Skyhawk, T-41 Mescalero
Cessna 175 Skylark
Cessna 177 Cardinal
Cessna 180 Skywagon
Cessna 182 Skylane
Cessna 185 Skywagon
Cessna 187
Cessna 188 AGwagon, AGpickup, AGtruck, and AGhusky
Cessna 190
Cessna 195
Cessna 205 Super Skywagon
Cessna 206 Stationair & Super Skylane
Cessna 207 Skywagon, Stationair 7 & 8
Cessna 208 Caravan
Cessna 210 Centurion
Cessna 303
Cessna 305 Birddog
Cessna 310
Cessna 320 Skyknight
Cessna 335
Cessna 336 Skymaster, O-2 Skymaster
Cessna 337 Skymaster
Cessna 340
Cessna 350 formerly the Columbia 350
Cessna 400 formerly the Columbia 400
Cessna 401 Utiliner and Businessliner
Cessna 402 Utiliner and Businessliner
Cessna 404 Titan II
Cessna 406 Caravan II
Cessna 411
Cessna 414 Chancellor
Cessna 421 Golden Eagle
Cessna 425 Conquest I
Cessna 441 Conquest II
Cessna 500 Citation I
Cessna 501 Citation ISP
Cessna 510 Citation Mustang
Cessna 525 CitationJet, CJ1, CJ1+
Cessna 525A CJ2, CJ2+
Cessna 525B CJ3
Cessna 525C CJ4
Cessna 550 Citation II, Cessna Citation Bravo
Cessna 551 Citation IISP
Cessna S550 Citation SII
Cessna 560 Citation V, Citation Ultra, Citation Encore, Citation Encore+
Cessna Citation 560XL Excel, XLS, XLS+
Cessna 620
Cessna 650 Citation III, Citation VI, Citation VII
Cessna 680 Citation Sovereign
Cessna 750 Citation X
Cessna 850 Citation Columbus


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