Page 24 - Volume 14 Number 1
P. 24
IN HISTORY
22 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
JANUARY 2020
By 1936 the Model C-34 remained one of the best four-place light airplanes on the market, but it would soon be replaced by an improved version, the C-37. (Courtesy of Wayne and Dan Muxlow)
Airmaster! – Part Two
Sales success of the Cessna C-34 led to three improved versions of the versatile monoplane before the winds of war forced an end to production.
by Edward H. Philips
The year 1936 witnessed a slow return to economic stability for the United States. Times were still tough and unemployment remained high, but Americans were going back to work thanks in part to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” policies. By the end of that year the Cessna Aircraft Company had delivered 42 of the popular C-34 cabin monoplane and demand remained steady. The competition, in particular the handsome Fairchild 24W and rugged Waco cabin biplanes, was becoming increasingly stiff. Dwane L. Wallace, who had assumed presidency of the company after Clyde Cessna resigned during the autumn of 1936, knew the time had come to reinvent the C-34.
