Page 26 - Volume 11 Number 7

In addition to manufacturing airplanes, Clyde Cessna opened the first flight school in the city and began ground school classes with five students in June 1917. Cessna is shown here with his would-be aviators outside of Building H at the Jones facility. America’s entry into World War I forced Clyde to close the flight school and terminate manufacturing activities.
suit claimed that Clyde had not provided eight weeks of training nor did he set up flight demonstrations as stipulated in the contracts. Apparently, the suit was settled out of court. McHugh, however, was the only one to finally complete the course and was hired by Cessna as a pilot.6
In addition to preparations for the flight school, the brothers Cessna continued work on the two-place monoplane that they dubbed The Comet. When it was finished that summer, Clyde was appalled that the airplane had cost him $6,000 to build, causing the pioneer aviator to complain that airplanes were too expensive (some things never change!). The Comet first flew late in June. Clyde was enthusiastic about the airplane’s performance, and when he flew the ship at Blackwell, Oklahoma, for the city’s observance of the Fourth of July; he received $500. More than 11,000 people received their money’s worth as Cessna flew his monoplane in ever tighter circles above the grandstands, then reduced throttle to idle and glided down to within a few hundred feet of the ground. Suddenly, he opened the throttle and zoomed directly over the spectators as both men and women screamed and dove for cover wherever they could find it.
On the return flight to Wichita, the Comet covered the 65-mile route in 36 minutes at a speed of 107 mph. Painted under the left- and right-wing panels were the words: “Cessna Monoplane – Made In Wichita.” In the months ahead Clyde did fly the Comet with a passenger in the front cockpit, but when the U.S. Government essentially banned private flying in 1918 to conserve fuel for the war effort, the Cessna Aeroplane Exhibition Company closed its doors.
The Cessna boys soon went from aviators to their previous occupation as farmers, growing wheat to help feed the nation and the military servicemen and women. After the war ended in November 1918, Clyde’s thoughts returned to flying but the exhibition business never resumed operation. As for Cessna’s family of monoplanes, all of them were eventually dismantled and disappeared except for the Comet that survived until 1930 when Mr. Cessna reportedly destroyed it. During the intervening years of 1919-1924, Cessna operated a
24 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
successful custom wheat threshing business. The profits from that enterprise would one day help finance and equip the next generation of Wichita’s aviation industry, starting with the Travel Air Manufacturing Company founded by two young men named Walter H. Beech and Lloyd C. Stearman. KA
NOTES:
1. The J.J. Jones Motor Company began manufacturing the “Light
Six” in 1914. Later, Jones relocated the company to the site of the Burton Car Works in north Wichita. During the 1880s Burton had earned an excellent reputation as a builder of quality passenger railroad cars.
2. In the years ahead, Turner’s passion for flying never abated. He is recognized by local historians as a key investor in the Travel Air Manufacturing Company (1924), Cessna Aircraft Company (1927) and in particular the Stearman Aircraft Company (1927), for which Turner personally spearheaded the raising of $60,000 to bring Lloyd Stearman and his infant company back to Wichita from California.
3. The radial powerplant was one of many designs by Alessandro Anzani, a well-known manufacturer of bicycles in Europe who turned to building aero engines. His designs, although unsophisticated compared to other engines of the period 1910- 1920, were generally reliable. By 1928, however, they were considered obsolete as new air-cooled, static radial engines such as the Wright J-4 and smaller Lycoming and Continental opposed engines began to dominate the marketplace.
4. Aviatrix Ruth Law was one of America’s celebrated female pilots in 1916-1917. Her most famous flight was a cross-country journey of 590 miles in November 1916, flying her Curtiss pusher biplane nonstop from Chicago to Hornell, New York, in slightly more than five hours and setting a distance record. After America entered World War I in April 1917, Miss Law and her Curtiss pusher campaigned vigorously for “Liberty Loan” fund drives in behalf of the Red Cross and United States’ military.
5. Smith later became one of Wichita’s most respected and sought- after photographers. From 1924-1931 he photographed hundreds of airplanes built by the Travel Air Company, Cessna Aircraft Company, Stearman Aircraft Company as well as smaller builders including Swallow, Lark and Laird. Smith took aerial photographs from the aft cockpit of his old Standard J-1 biplane, often piloted by local aviators Ted Braley or Walter H. Beech.
6. McHugh is reported to have flown one of Cessna’s monoplanes during an exhibition in Coldwater, Kansas, but the flight could not be verified.
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.
JULY 2017