Cessna has commemorated the 100th anniversary of company founder Clyde Vernon Cessna learning to fly and building his first airplane.
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 interest in aviation was piqued by reading headlines highlighting the Wright brothers’ accomplishment with powered flight and Louis Blériot successfully flying his monoplane across the English Channel. And his passion for aviation truly ignited when he witnessed flight for the first time in January 1911 at a traveling air demonstration in Oklahoma City.
CAPTION: A portrait of Clyde V. Cessna. (Cessna)
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 his aircraft, which he christened ‘Silver Wings’, was May 11, 1911 and his first flight without a crash landing occurred in June. He endured 12 crashes at an average of US$100 per fix and considerable time spent in repairing the aircraft to try again.
In the autumn of 1911 the Cessnas moved back to Kansas and in 1916 Clyde Cessna became the first person 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 December 22 of that year became known as the Cessna Aircraft Company. During the past 84 years, the company has designed, produced and delivered more than 192,500 aircraft.
“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,” Cessna senior vice president, Product Engineering, Dave Brant, said.
“100 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.”
Clyde Cessna retired from the company on October 28, 1936, turned its leadership over to his nephew Dwane Wallace, and returned to farming. He received many honors and awards through the years for his contributions to aviation, including induction into the US National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1978. He passed away on November 20, 1954 at age 75.
CAPTION: Clyde Cessna’s first airplane, which he named ‘Silver Wings’. (Cessna)