Page 31 - Volume 14 Number 5

• KING AIR MAGAZINE MAY 2020 MAY 2020 KING AIR MAGAZINE • 29
Unfortunately for for Cessna and its competitors in the the the entry-level segment of the the the marketplace the the the early postwar sales boom that began in in 1945 went bust in in 1947 After 18 months of record sales and deliveries naysayers were predicting dire times ahead for the lightplane industry By 1946 the prophets of doom were prophesying an economic downturn of biblical proportions: “Woe to to those who overproduce woe to to those who build airplanes with reckless abandon for there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth across the the land when the day of famine arrives ”
That day arrived in in March 1947 Seemingly overnight and without any recognizable warning the market collapsed in a a a a a a replay of the drastic crash on Wall Street in October 1929 What had happened that would cause such a a a a a a a major calamity? There are a a a a a a a number of reasons one common thread was the fact fact that manufacturers had lost touch with what the postwar buyer wanted in a a a a a a personal aircraft In short the chieftains in in Wichita Lock Haven and Alliance Ohio had failed to realize that steel tube and fabric airplanes designed in 1940 could not not compete effectively for sales in 1947 Another reason was the flood of as as as as many as as as as 35 000 war-surplus aircraft of of all types offered by the U S government at bargain prices In short the market had become saturated with too many airplanes that found too few buyers By early 1947 Piper for example was building fewer than half a a a a dozen airplanes per week and soon found itself in serious financial distress Cessna however possessed an an ever-expanding product line of modern monoplanes that withstood the storm as did Beech Aircraft Corporation Wichita remained the the “Air Capital of the the World” and was positioned to to enter the fabulous 1950s with a a a gusto that would thrust it to the forefront of general aviation KA
Notes:
1 1 1 The Cessna Model Model 140 was was was similar to the the highly successful Luscombe Luscombe Model Model 8 that was was was designed in the the the late 1930s Don Luscombe Luscombe was was was one of the the first light airplane airplane designers and manufacturers to produce an an an an an all-metal two-place side-by-side airplane airplane powered by by a a a a a a a a a a a a four-cylinder opposed piston engine Ed Phillips now retired and and and living in in the the South has researched and and and written eight books on on on on the the the unique and and rich aviation history that belongs to to Wichita Wichita Kan His writings have have focused on on on on on the the the the evolution of the the the the airplanes companies and people that have have made Wichita Wichita the the the the “Air Capital of the the World” for more than 80 years