Page 26 - Volume 12 Number 8

During the winter of 1930, sales of new Cessna aircraft continued its downward trend, and in February 1930 the price of one share of stock was only $10. That month a meeting of the board of directors was held and plans were made to completely reorganize the business model. At that time, two prominent Wichita businessmen, Charles Yankey and M.L. Arnold, arrived on the scene. They promised Clyde Cessna $50,000 to recapitalize the company. In return, Arnold was placed on the board as vice president and treasurer. Soon after the meeting Arnold informed the local press that “sweeping cuts” would be made to prices of the Model DC-6A to $9,750 from $11,000, but Clyde knew that what the company really needed was not more price cuts but aircraft designed to sell in what was rapidly becoming a severely depressed market.
Clyde’s son, Eldon, had been working on such an aircraft since late 1929, and by Christmas the first CG-1 (Cessna Glider-1) was completed and another was nearing completion. Since 1925 Eldon had been a student in mechanical engineering at the Kansas State Agricultural College. In 1928 his father called him back to Wichita to work at the Cessna factory. Clyde was an enthusiastic supporter of the glider program and had high hopes that a $398 price tag would result in sale of hundreds or even thousands of the rudimentary aircraft.
A production version was quickly developed and designated as the CG-2. Constructed primarily of wood, the aircraft featured a wingspan of 35 feet, an area of 157 square feet and a benign wing loading of only 1.82
pounds per square foot. Empty weight was 120 pounds. The CG-2 could be launched by a team of people, towed aloft and released, or launched using a shock cord. Flying speed was about 25 mph and landing speed was a gentle 15 mph.
Each glider was shipped in a crate and could be easily assembled without special tools and came with an instruction manual, shock cord, a seat belt and an automatic release mechanism for manual launching or aerial towing. Both Arnold and Clyde Cessna wanted to advertise the CG-2 to the world, and one was included in the company’s display at the aeronautical exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, in March 1930. The humble CG-2 drew more attention at the show than the majestic DC-6A and DC-6B cabin monoplanes.
Unfortunately, other struggling airframe manu- facturers, among them Alexander Eaglerock in Colorado, WACO in Ohio, and the Detroit Aircraft Company, were excellent building gliders of their own design and depressed sales of the CG-2. According to Cessna company records, only 84 gliders can be verified as built and sold despite claims that 300 were completed. In addition to the CG-2, company engineers had been busy designing and building the CS-1 (Cessna Sailplane—1) that featured a glide ratio of one foot down for every
During 1930, the Cessna Aircraft Company was among many aircraft manufacturers building gliders in the United States. The CG-1 was replaced by the improved CG-2 shown here. Eldon Cessna is the pilot. (ROBERT PICKETT COLLECTION/KANSAS AVIATION MUSEUM)
In the summer of 1929 the Cessna Aircraft Company relocated to a new factory southwest of downtown Wichita. Unfortunately, the debacle on Wall Street that began in October of that year would destroy Clyde Cessna’s long-time dream of manufacturing airplanes and brought Wichita’s lucrative aviation enterprise to its knees. (TEXTRON AVIATION)