Page 26 - Volume 12 Number 4

the competition during qualifying heats and it looked as though the racer would enjoy great success and a lot of prize money.
On September 2, as strong winds blew across the airport, Liggett climbed aboard the CR-2A and took off in an attempt to set a speed record. With the Warner engine at full throttle, Roy leveled off at about 300 feet after a shallow dive to gain speed when suddenly a section of the cowling blew off the engine and struck the left wing, breaking it off near the root. As Clyde Cessna watched in horror, the airplane snapped into rapid rolls to the left and crashed into a corn eld in an explosive ball of
ame, scattering wreckage over a wide area. Liggett was killed instantly. According to Eldon Cessna and others who knew Clyde well, the accident stripped the pioneer aviator of his enthusiasm for racing and for ying itself. Never again did C.V. Cessna possess that dynamic drive and determination to succeed that had served him so well for the past 22 years. Liggett was survived by a wife and two children whom Clyde supported nancially for an undisclosed period.
The Cessna CR-2 and CR-3 racers were a special breed of airplane own by a unique breed of pilots who were not afraid to y those machines to their limits. Perhaps more importantly, the speedsters of Clyde and Eldon Cessna brought Wichita not only fame but embellished the prairie city’s already solid reputation as the undisputed “Air Capital of the World.” KA NOTES:
1. Clyde Cessna was con dent that the Model AW would win the Class A division chie y because in service it had consistently demonstrated a fuel economy of 21 miles per gallon while averaging more than 110 mph – excellent performance for 1928.
2. Sales of the speedy Model AW continued unabated until the Wall Street debacle in October 1929. During 1930 production slowed to trickle and only 50 of the popular monoplanes were delivered to customers. The Cessna Aircraft Company locked its doors in 1931 after manufacturing about 240 cabin monoplanes (Model AW, DC-6A and DC-6B, and custom-built air racing ships) from 1927-1931.
3 The building was initially built to house Quick Air Motors, but Curtiss Quick failed to occupy the facility. The Swift Aircraft Corporation was the next resident, but the stock market crash forced the company into receivership. Last, none other than the talented designer/engineer Al Mooney used the building to construct his advanced Mooney A-1 cabin monoplane before leaving Wichita.
4 At 2,700 RPM the engine was producing about 175 horsepower. Modifying engines to operate at higher RPM than a stock powerplant was common within the air racing community during the 1930s.
Ed Phillips, now retired and living in the South, has researched and written eight books on the unique and rich aviation history that belongs to Wichita, Kan. His writings have focused on the evolution of the airplanes, companies and people that have made Wichita the “Air Capital of the World” for more than 80 years.
APRIL 2018
In the summer of 1933, racing pilot Johnny Livingston (center) posed with well- known aerobatic pilot
Tex LaGrone (right) and a friend on the new CR-3
that was custom-built by Clyde and Eldon Cessna for Livingston. The yellow and red monoplane won every race Johnny entered but was destroyed in a crash only
60 days after its rst ight. (TEXTRON AVIATION)
24 • KING AIR MAGAZINE