Page 27 - Volume 12 Number 8

30 feet forward. Wingspan was a generous 47 feet and empty was only 150 pounds. As with the CG-2, the CS-1 could be launched by a team of men pulling on a rope or towed into the air by an automobile (the preferred method). During a series of test flights in the spring of 1930, the aircraft had remained aloft for up to three minutes. Although such a short duration of flight pales by comparison to modern sailplanes, the CS-1 could attain only a few hundred feet of altitude at best, leaving very little time to glide.
As 1930 progressed sales of new aircraft nationwide continued to decline. Production of the CG-2, however, was increased to more than one per work day. In May Eldon Cessna installed small floats on a CG-2 and conducted experimental flights of his “Hydro-Glider” on a man-made lake near the campus of the Braley Flying School. Ever the innovator, Eldon mounted a tiny, two-cylinder Cleone piston engine on the fuselage of another CG-2, added a five-quart fuel tank and bolted a welded steel tube landing gear to the airframe.
Eldon dubbed his creation the CPG-1 (Cessna Powered Glider – Model 1) and conducted many successful flights during May and June before the engine was relocated forward ahead of the pilot seat, which was shielded from the propeller blast by a curved piece of Pyrolin. The little ship soon became a common sight near the Cessna factory, buzzing through the sky at an estimated 25-30 mph.
Encouraged by his success with the CPG-1, Eldon modified a CG-2 by covering the fuselage with fabric, adding a tiny door on the right side of the fuselage and a windshield in front of the pilot, thereby creating a semi-enclosed cockpit for the pilot. Next, he installed a Cleone engine (rated at 25 horsepower) and propeller to complete the CG-2’s transformation from glider to airplane.
Only one example was built and served as the prototype for the EC-1 monoplane, designed chiefly by Eldon and demonstrated successfully to the company board of directors. They approved further development and two additional EC-1 ships were built that summer but serial production never materialized. By March 1931, however, the EC-1 had evolved into the EC-2 – a two-place airplane powered by a two-cylinder, air-cooled Aeronca engine that developed 30 horsepower. Cessna records are unclear, but apparently only one EC-2 was built and was destroyed in a crash in 1933. Overall the little ship was a good design and lent itself well to production, but the company was essentially broke and the EC-2 became the final product of the original Cessna Aircraft Company.
In addition to the EC-1 and EC-2, the few company engineers remaining on the skinny payroll designed a two-place, high-wing monoplane powered by an inline, inverted Cirrus engine rated at 95 horsepower.
AUGUST 2018 KING AIR MAGAZINE • 25