Company Honors 100th Anniversary Of Clyde V. Cessna's Pursuit
Of Flight
It was a century ago that Clyde V. Cessna learned to fly, and
built his first airplane. "It's a source of pride for all Cessnans
to know we are carrying the torch for a company started by a man
with such a pioneering and tenacious spirit. One hundred years ago,
Clyde Cessna taught himself to fly just eight years after the
Wright brothers flew. That's historically significant, and that
'can do' spirit defines this company and is something all of us at
Cessna intend to carry on," said Dave Brant, senior vice president,
Product Engineering.
Clyde V. Cessna
According to company archives, 31-year-old Clyde Vernon Cessna
spent much of 1911 teaching himself to fly while attempting to get
his first plane in the air. Born in Iowa in 1879, Clyde Cessna's
family moved in 1881 to Rago, KS, about 30 miles west of Wichita.
Headlines highlighting the Wright brothers' accomplishment with
powered flight and Louis Blériot successfully flying his
monoplane across the English Channel got Clyde Cessna's attention,
but his passion for aviation ignited when he witnessed flight for
the first time in January 1911 at a traveling air demonstration in
Oklahoma City. By then Clyde Cessna and his wife had relocated
to Enid, OK, to run an Overland Farm car dealership.
Cessna's First Airplane
Just weeks after watching the demonstrations, the
farmer-turned-auto salesman with a mechanical mind used his life's
savings to purchase a copy of the Blériot XI fuselage from
the Queen Aeroplane Company of New York City. Clyde Cessna and his
brother Roy Cessna added an engine and propeller, and they came to
understand every detail of the airplane during numerous rebuilds
after technical failures and accidents on the Salt Plains in
northern Oklahoma. Archives show that Clyde Cessna's first attempt
to fly Silver Wings was May 11 and his first flight without a crash
landing occurred in June. He endured 12 crashes at an average of
$100 per fix and considerable time spent in repairing the aircraft
to try again.
Cessna With Early Airplane
In fall 1911 the Cessnas moved back to
Kansas and in 1916 Clyde Cessna became the first to manufacture
powered aircraft in Wichita. He collaborated with Walter Beech
(Beechcraft) and Lloyd Stearman (Boeing), among others, before
setting out to form the Cessna Roos Aircraft Company in September
1927, which by Dec. 22, 1927, became known as the Cessna Aircraft
Company. During the past 84 years, the company has designed,
produced and delivered more than 192,500 airplanes around the
globe.
From Those Beginnings ...
Clyde Cessna retired from the company, turning leadership over
to his nephew Dwane Wallace, on Oct. 28, 1936. He then returned to
farming in Rago, where he died on Nov. 20, 1954. He has received
many honors and awards through the years for his contributions to
aviation, including induction into the National Aviation Hall of
Fame in 1978.
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