Page 29 - Volume 13 Number 12

Rare photograph of the prototype C-34 soon after its completion in August 1934. The airplane was the first to be built in the Cessna factory since the EC-2 of 1931. (Robert J. Pickett Collection/Kansas Aviation Museum)
By June 1935 the prototype had been thoroughly tested and certified by the Civil Aeronautics Authority. A C-34 with standard equipment was priced at $4,985. (Robert J. Pickett Collection/Kansas Aviation Museum)
board and officers of the reborn company were elected, including Clyde Cessna, president, Roscoe Vaughan, vice president; Dwight Wallace, secretary/treasurer, and Dwane Wallace, general manager. The hardest battle had been fought and won. The Wallace boys had an airplane company, but what they needed was an airplane to sell. Fortunately, since his senior year in college Dwane had been thinking about a new cabin monoplane and what virtues it had to possess if it was to succeed in a very depressed marketplace.
On March 5, 1934, Clyde Cessna officially announced that the company’s airplane would be known as the C­34 to celebrate the rebirth of Cessna Aircraft in 1934. To help Dwane with the engineering tasks required to transform the C­34 from the drawing board to first flight, he hired two young and talented men – Jerry Gerteis and Tom Salter. Detail design work progressed smoothly and fabrication of parts and assemblies was underway by the end of March. By late spring the fuselage and cabin design were close to completion and the full­cantilever wing layout was approaching its final configuration.
To build the prototype for C­34 Dwane surrounded himself with a small band of skilled workers who were more than capable of translating a blueprint airplane into a living machine of steel, wood and fabric. A majority of the monoplane had to be made by hand because there was only a small number of new fixtures
DECEMBER 2019
and jigs available to ease the job. The C­34’s cabin featured two front seats and bench­type rear seat that would provide ample comfort for the pilot and three passengers. The interior walls were soundproofed as much as possible, and fresh air vents would keep the cabin cool in hot weather and a heat muff on the engine’s exhaust manifold would keep everyone warm in winter. A small baggage compartment was located behind the rear seat and could accommodate up to 64 pounds of luggage or small packages.
As for the C­34’s airframe, Dwane used the popular Cessna Model AW of 1929 as a baseline for design of the new monoplane. There were, however, some minor changes:
= The M­12 airfoil used on the Model AW was replaced with a NACA (National Advisory
Committee on Aeronautics) 2412 airfoil section that improved lift.
= The spruce spar was made
of built­up laminations that formed a continuous unit, with truss­type ribs fabricated from spruce and plywood gussets for reinforcement.
= Double bracing wires were employed inside the wing structure to provide required torsional rigidity, and the leading edge was covered in plywood.
= The completed wing did not require plywood sheathing over its entire length, therefore more doped cotton fabric was used that saved time, money and weight.
= A full­cantilever main landing gear eliminated the welded steel tubing and elastic bungee cords used on the Model AW. Each gear assembly housed an oil­spring shock strut and 21­inch diameter wheels.
= Cable­operated mechanical brakes were standard equipment along with an eight­inch, full­swiveling, non­ steerable tailwheel.
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