Page 32 - Volume 14 Number 2

In 1934 the United States Navy expressed interest in the Model 70 and eventually ordered 41 Model 73 airplanes designated NS-1. (Walter House Collection)
the Model 247, boasted a retractable main landing gear – one of the first for an airplane in the single-engine, four-place class.
Southeast of the city at the defunct Cessna Aircraft Company, brothers Dwane and Dwight Wallace were waging a campaign to wrest control of the business from its board of directors who, in 1932, had locked pioneer aviator Clyde V. Cessna out of his own factory and shut down production. Fortunately, the brothers succeeded in their quest and by 1934 were preparing to manufacture the Cessna Model C34 featuring a Warner Scarab static, air-cooled radial engine, a full-cantilever wing and a cantilever main landing gear.
Although all three of these companies were competitors, their leaders remained a close-knit clan that, regardless of who was prospering in those tough times, knew it was always in the best interest of Wichita to promote the city as a leader in small airplane design and manufacturing.
So, it was by 1934 a trio of talented engineers at the Stearman factory on South Oliver Road were busy completing the design of a primary training biplane – one that company officials hoped would find favor with the United States Army Air Corps and the U.S. Navy. Despite an improving economy and rising consumer confidence in the future, by 1934 a tight-fisted Congress remained reluctant to appropriate funds for military aviation. As a
30 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
FEBRUARY 2020