Along with his son Eldon, Clyde designed and built two racing airplanes in the early 1930s, one of which famed pilot Johnny Livingston flew to victory in every race he entered. Unfortunately, the other racer crashed and killed Cessna’s good friend Roy Liggett. Stricken with grief, Cessna withdrew from aviation, never to actively return.

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His nephew Dwane Wallace had other ideas, however. With help from fellow aeronautical engineer Jerry Gerteis, Wallace designed the sleek Model C-34 monoplane in 1934. He and his brother Dwight Wallace resurrected the defunct Cessna Aircraft Co. to produce it. Fast and economical, the C-34 was a success, and it put Dwane Wallace and his infant company on the path to fame and fortune.

The company introduced its first twin-engine design, the Model T-50, in 1939. Dwane Wallace once remarked that he had accomplished much of the initial flight testing of the prototype aircraft before he obtained a multiengine rating to legally fly it. The onset of World War II brought orders for thousands of T-50 trainers, first from the Canadians and then from the U.S. armed forces.

After the war, Wallace carefully orchestrated Cessna’s rise to prominence as the world’s most prolific builder of small airplanes. Flight schools flocked to the company’s Wichita, Kan., factory to buy two-place Model 120 and Model 140 monoplanes, and the four-place Model 170 became popular for family flying as well as for business flights. The bullish Models 190 and 195, with their rumbling Jacobs radial engines and roomy cabins, represented the pinnacle of Cessna’s product line and sold well. Dwane Wallace was especially fond of the Models 190 and 195, and logged more than 3,000 hours in those aircraft alone.

Under Wallace’s guidance, the Cessna Aircraft Co. grew by leaps and bounds during the 1950s. The Model 310 was introduced in 1954 and quickly set new standards for the lightweight twin-engine market. Although Piper’s popular Apache was less expensive, it could not match the new Cessna’s performance and utility. The 310 accommodated up to five passengers, and gained much of its fame through television as the favorite mount of Sky King.

When Piper unveiled its tricycle-gear Tri-Pacer in November 1950, Cessna was still building tailwheel–albeit all-metal–airplanes. As sales of the steel-tube and fabric Tri-Pacer soared and Model 170 sales stalled, Wallace quickly deduced that the days of the tailwheel were numbered. In 1956, Cessna introduced its answer to the Tri-Pacer–the Model 172. From its introduction until production ceased in 1986, the 172 was the best-selling four-place light aircraft in the history of general aviation.

Hot on the heels of the 172 came the Model 182, with more room and power. Cessna then introduced the Model 210, with retractable gear, and the world’s most ubiquitous trainer–the Model 150. By 1960, Wallace was building a product line that featured an airplane for every purpose.

In its ever-expanding family of aircraft, Cessna introduced pressurized twin-engine airplanes such as the Model 411 and the Model 421 in the 1960s. In 1968, Wallace took a bold step by introducing the Fanjet 500–a turbofan-powered business jet that established Cessna as a leader in the business jet market.

More than 100,000 piston-powered airplanes and more than 2,000 Citation jets have been built since Clyde Cessna’s two nephews got into the capricious aviation industry. In 1985, Cessna Aircraft Co. became a subsidiary of General Dynamics, and production of piston-powered airplanes ended with the 1986 model year. In 1992, Textron, Inc., acquired the company. E.H.P.

Although his skill as an aviator was minimal at best, Cessna was determined to begin recouping some of his investment. The public, however, showed little interest in their local birdman and his flying machine. Only $40 in gate receipts was collected on Independence Day, and Cessna flatly refused to fly for such a pittance.

“There is nothing that justifies a flight unless we get the money back that we have spent,” he quipped to reporters in Enid. Despite setbacks and public indifference, the Cessna brothers continued to fly on the Salt Plains during the summer of 1911. Clyde’s airmanship improved, and by August he was making regular flights of two or three miles at altitudes of about 50 feet.

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