Page 23 - Volume 12, Number 7

Including cash prizes for the lowest elapsed times between certain control points that earned Earl another $1,910, he eventually corralled $10,910 in prize money. Rowland’s achievement in the Derby vindicated Clyde’s belief that his full-cantilever monoplanes were among the fastest lightweight airplanes in the world. In the wake of Earl’s victory, the Cessna factory was flooded with orders for the Model AW as a testimony to the airplane’s impact on the growing commercial market. Within three days 60 letters were received and more would arrive for many days afterward.
On Sept. 20, Rowland and the Model AW arrived safely in Wichita where he received a hero’s welcome by an admiring public. Gala celebrations were held, including a 550-seat banquet held at the Hotel Lassen and attended by both Walter Beech and Lloyd Stearman. A few days later Rowland and the Cessna had flown east to New York City where he and the airplane were feted yet again; he performed some demonstration flights and attended various airport dedications. Meanwhile, back in Wichita, Clyde Cessna was given a rousing dinner by company employees at the Green Parrot Inn.
For Mr. Cessna, the sudden rush of fame was both a blessing and a curse – demand for airplanes, particularly the spunky Model AW, skyrocketed but the factory’s ability to meet that demand remained inadequate. The only solution was to refinance the Cessna Aircraft
Company, build a new, much larger manufacturing complex and broaden the product line. The board of directors agreed, and by October 1928 plans were being drawn up to build a major facility on Franklin Road southeast of the city.
During October, scuttlebutt about the refinancing continued to fuel the rumor mill for weeks. Financiers from Chicago contacted Clyde and offered to capitalize the company with 2 million dollars if Cessna would move his factory to the Windy City. He refused but contact with various eastern financiers continued as 1929 approached. On Wall Street Cessna stock was trading at $150 per share. By comparison, before the Air Derby, stock was selling for a mere $10 per share. After months of uncertainty, January 1929 marked a fresh start for the Cessna Aircraft Company. Clyde announced plans for the new factory on Franklin Road and an agreement with The Shawmut Corporation of Boston and New York City. Shawmut officials had taken a long, hard look at Cessna’s enterprise and handed him a check for $300,000 to jump-start construction of the manufacturing campus.
The factory was sorely needed. Cessna dealers nationwide were experiencing a sales boom that was unheard of before 1929. Late in January they sent Clyde orders for 57 monoplanes, but the next month Curtiss Flying Service (CFS) of New York signed a contract
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