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A few other projects developed by Cessna Aircraft during the war are worthy of mention, although none progressed beyond the drawing board or mock-up stages:
In May 1941, a two-place version of the Bobcat, dubbed the T-55, was designed with two, 300-horsepower Jacobs radial engines providing a maximum speed of 225 mph. None were built.
One year later in 1942, Cessna engineers planned to install four Pratt & Whitney R-985-T1B3 Wasp Junior radial engines to an enlarged T-50 airframe transforming it into a four-engine trainer for heavy bomber aircrews. No further development occurred.
The T-70 navigator trainer was proposed in 1941 as a low-wing cabin monoplane powered by two Pratt & Whitney R-1340 radial engines. Seating 10 students in its spacious interior, the T-70 was designed to a maximum gross weight of 12,000 pounds and a maximum speed of 220 mph. The design was shelved in part because the Beechcraft AT-11 navigator trainer was already in production and serving that role well.
Project P-370 was known at the Cessna factory as the The Family Car of the Air during its development in 1944. Intended for the postwar lightweight airplane market, the P-370 made it to the mock-up stage but the project was canceled in 1945.
Perhaps the most bizarre project conceived by Cessna engineering during the war was the CTP-1 (Cessna Torpedo Plane) – a remote-controlled drone powered by
The C-106 was a good design and the Army Air Corps was inter- ested in mass production of the twin-engine freighter, but only two were built. (Wichita State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives via Robert J. Pickett Collection/Kansas Aviation Museum)
a 200-horsepower engine and fitted with a 500-pound explosive warhead. The crude guidance system activated electric servos that deflected the rudder and elevators to control the flight path. The concept called for the CTP-1 to be guided over the target, the wings would be blown off by a charge and the fuselage would plummet downward and strike the enemy a mighty blow. None were built. KA
Notes:
1 The Waco CG-4 was built by 16 subcontractors during the war. A total of 13,909 were manufactured. The glider could carry 15 troops or a how- itzer and fewer soldiers as well as supplies. The glider’s wing spanned more than 83 feet. Gross weight was 9,000 pounds and maximum tow- ing speed was 150 mph. The gliders were usually towed aloft by U.S. Army Air Forces Douglas C-47 and Royal Air Force Dakota transports.
Ed Phillips, now retired and living in the South, has researched and written eight books on the unique and rich aviation history that belongs to Wichita, Kan. His writings have focused on the evolution of the airplanes, companies and people that have made Wichita the “Air Capital of the World” for more than 80 years.
FEBRUARY 2021
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 29