Page 28 - Volume 12 Number 8

Known as the FC-1, its cantilever – the Cessna Aircraft Company a check for $22,000 and kept the
wing spanned 33 feet and the fuselage length was 21 feet. Maximum gross weight was 1,458 pounds. It was sold to a private owner in June 1930.
Meanwhile, Clyde Cessna clung to his belief that the once lucrative aviation business would not recover for a long time (he was correct) and strongly advocated a conservative approach to preserving the company until better days arrived. Clyde and the board of directors took a hard look at the situation and had to accept the raw reality before them
was on the verge of bankruptcy. During a meeting of the board in October 1930, directors from the Fourth National Bank in Wichita told company officials they were calling in some of the debt owed. Unfortunately, there was no cash in the company coffers.
To pay those debts, it was proposed that vice president M.L. Arnold buy four unsold airplanes along with land still available at the old factory on First Street and Glenn Avenue. Arnold wrote
wolves at bay for a little while longer. By January 1931 the company’s financial condition was destitute, and stockholders began to call for closure of the factory. What happened next took an emotional toll on Clyde Cessna. Not only was the aviation pioneer caught in the crosshairs of investors and bankers, but even some board members were prepared to call for his dismissal. As a result, Thad C. Carver, a banker from Pratt, Kansas, and a long-time supporter of Wichita’s aviation industry, was elected president relegating Clyde to the office of vice president.
The board, however, remained optimistic that the business climate would improve during 1931 and boldly announced that a new series of Cessna monoplanes would be introduced during the year. Plans called for the diminutive EC-2 to be equipped with a 50-horsepower Continental powerplant and offered under the name Baby Cessna but the market was already flooded with small, low-powered ships built by a number of companies struggling to survive.
The final nail in the coffin of the Cessna Aircraft Company was driven home in March 1931 when the board met to decide on a new course of action. After discussions they decided that because of almost non-existent sales and that no profit could hope to be made under the current economic conditions, and to avoid bankruptcy and receivership, the factory should be closed, locked and the remaining employees eliminated from the
AUGUST 2018
The Cessna EC-1 was designed
by Eldon Cessna as an affordable, lightweight two-place monoplane that evolved from his experiments with powered gliders. (ROBERT PICKETT COLLECTION/KANSAS AVIATION MUSEUM)
26 • KING AIR MAGAZINE