The Queen monoplane Clyde was flying had been built for the famed pilot John B. Moisant, but was purchased by Cessna in February 1911 after Moisant’s death in New Orleans on December 31, 1910. Cessna’s penchant for monoplanes is legendary. He once told journalists that a monoplane was “showier, worth more to see than any of the biplanes” that dominated aviation design at that time.

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Clyde Cessna became enamored with flying after Louis Blériot’s famous flight across the English Channel in July 1909, and set his sights on obtaining a monoplane. He traveled to Oklahoma City in January 1911 to witness exhibition flights by Moisant’s International Aviators, an esteemed group of pilots that included Roland Garros, René Simon, Charles Hamilton and René Barrier. Except for Hamilton, who had a biplane, the pilots all flew Blériot-type monoplanes.

During his visit to the air meet, Cessna learned of the Queen Aeroplane Company in New York City. By 1911, Queen (and other companies in the United States and abroad) was doing a brisk business building and selling virtual copies of the Blériot XI to eager buyers.

Charged with enthusiasm, Cessna traveled east to New York City and spent nearly a month at the Queen company facilities, building monoplanes and learning the rudiments of flight. Cessna bought Moisant’s special Blériot copy for $7,500–almost his entire life savings–and in late February shipped the aircraft to Enid by rail.

The airplane was purchased without an engine, chiefly to reduce the acquisition cost. Instead of the Indian or Gnome rotary engines that normally powered the Queen ships, Cessna had obtained a V-8 power plant and installed it for initial flights in Silverwing. The engine, however, proved too cantankerous and was abandoned in favor of the two-stroke, four-cylinder Elbridge Aero Special.

Developing 40 hp at 1,050 rpm, the Aero Special weighed 150 pounds without its single magneto. The engine was based on Elbridge’s successful marine power plant of a similar design. Only minor modifications were necessary to adapt it to aeronautical applications.

For the July 4, 1911, celebration at Enid, Clyde Cessna had agreed to fly Silverwing for the first time in public view. Journalists flocked around Clyde, who normally did all the public relations work, while Roy handled most technical matters associated with the airplane.

When asked how he liked flying, Clyde optimistically proclaimed he would “enjoy it when I get it learned.” With a serious look on his weathered face, Cessna emphasized: “The machine is very sensitive to any movement of the steering apparatus. In going up, if one tips the machine a little too much, he will be caught by the wind and he can’t stop going up.” In one of the best understatements of his infant flying career, Cessna grimly told his patrons, “If the engine stops for any reason, you are due to tumble, and that’s all there is to it!”Cessna Aircraft Company

Clyde V. Cessna’s decision to abandon automobiles for airplanes was a bold, courageous step. Little did the Oklahoma aviator realize that in the next 50 years his name would become an aviation icon.

In the years that followed Cessna’s first forays into the air and his successful aero exhibition business, he became increasingly enamored with the idea of building and selling airplanes to the public. Although his initial attempt in 1916­17 was less than successful, Cessna never gave up on his dream of becoming an aircraft manufacturer.

Late in 1924 he was lured back into aviation by Lloyd Stearman and Walter Beech to form Travel Air Manufacturing Co. With his penchant for monoplanes, Cessna designed and built a five-place, semicantilever wing aircraft in 1926 that became the precursor of Travel Air’s famed Type 5000 monoplane.

In 1927, Cessna left the company to build his version of the ultimate airplane–the full-cantilever wing monoplane called the Phantom. Confident that he had a truly marketable design, Clyde formed the Cessna Aircraft Co. in 1927. The Phantom led to a series of attractive, speedy airplanes such as the Model AW and the DC-6 series that sold well until the Wall Street stock market crash of 1929.

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