Between engagements, Cessna tinkered incessantly with both the airframe and the engine. At Cherokee, Okla., in October 1912, Silverwing performed flawlessly and reached an altitude of nearly 2,000 feet, thrilling the spectators below. At long last, the Cessna Exhibition Company was literally flying high and making a profit.

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Cessna flew over Enid on November 25 and stayed aloft for 15 minutes–one of his longest flights up to that time. He flew at Enid again on Christmas Eve, flying a wide circle over the city and remaining airborne for 20 minutes. Flushed with success, Cessna shipped his monoplane to Rago, Kan., and shifted his base of operation there for the winter months.

Despite the bitter cold, on January 1, 1913, Cessna flew at Belmont and made six more flights that month in various Kansas towns. He was making from $100 to as much as $400 for each flight, and he flew additional exhibitions in February and March before returning to Enid.

Cessna’s chief reason for returning to Oklahoma was to build a new monoplane. Silverwing had served him well, but “the old tub” had earned its retirement after two years of hard flying, crashes and countless repairs.

Clyde and Roy Cessna and their helpers worked to complete the new aircraft by spring. Although resembling the Queen/ Blériot ship in overall design, the new Cessna plane featured increased wingspan and chord, a longer fuselage that was completely covered with fabric, and a larger rudder. Although conventional rudder operation was by a single cable connected from the pedals or rudder bar to each side of the rudder, Cessna’s system was different. He crossed the rudder cables. For left rudder movement, the right rudder control was pushed; for right rudder movement, the left control was used. Silverwing also had that rudder arrangement.

Clyde Cessna always preferred the crossed-cable configuration. The airplanes he flew (including a Laird Swallow and numerous Travel Air biplanes) were modified with that feature. (Walter Beech reportedly took off one day in a Travel Air normally flown by Cessna, and quickly discovered the rudder cables were crossed. He landed safely, but had a few choice words for Clyde’s rudder system.)

Cessna retained the temperamental but faithful old Elbridge engine for his new ship, although he planned to replace it as soon as he could afford a more suitable power plant. On June 6, 1913, the new ship took to the air for the first time. It flew well, but it was damaged slightly during landing, chiefly because of Cessna’s unfamiliarity with the machine.

Only days later, Clyde and his repaired monoplane were busy flying exhibitions in Kansas towns. He earned $100­$200 for each flight lasting five minutes, and in August was paid $400 in Nashville, Kan., for two flights. In September, he flew in Liberal and took home $600 for three flights, followed in October by aerial exhibitions at Stafford that earned him another $400 in cash. On October 17, Cessna flew for 16 minutes and became one of the first aviators to fly over downtown Wichita.

Like many other pilots in the exhibition business, Cessna had a varied bag of tricks he used to draw people to the flying field. One of his most successful ploys was to drop a football from an altitude of 1,000 feet. Anyone who caught the ball received $5; if no one caught it, the first person to retrieve the ball earned $2.50. Since admission to see Cessna fly was only 25 cents, scrambling for a pigskin was well worth the effort.

Before leaving Wichita, Cessna told journalists that the city would be an ideal location for building airplanes and training pilots to fly them. City officials were keen on the prospect. It would prove to be a most auspicious idea.

Clyde Cessna was a visionary. He knew that the days of exhibition flying were numbered. He wanted not only to fly but also to build and sell airplanes–to make aviation a profitable and respectable enterprise. He would soon get an opportunity to make his dream come true.

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