Page 24 - Volume 14 Number 9

IN HISTORY
A Royal Canadian Air Force Crane 1 leads a U.S. Army Air Corps AT-17 during a production test flight. The colorful stripes on the AT-17’s rudder began to disappear from production airplanes early in 1942. (Robert J. Pickett Collection)
Two years earlier, in the autumn of 1937, Wallace put Tom Salter and his engineering staff to work developing concepts for a twin-engine Cessna. After 18 months of work, much of it supervised by Wallace, the prototype T-50 was ready for its first flight. On Sunday, March 26, 1939, Wallace and factory manager William “Bill” Snook climbed aboard the monoplane for a 20-minute jaunt into the blue skies above Wichita, Kansas. Satisfied with the initial flight, the next day Dwane took the airplane up for a one hour, 40-minute excursion that carefully probed handling characteristics, high and low speed performance, stalls and systems operation.
A six-month flight test program was conducted and a few changes were made that included replacement of the V-shaped windshield with two panels of curved glass and enlarging the aft cabin windows. In March 1940, the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) issued Approved Type Certificate (ATC) 722 for the Model T-50. The CAA then ordered 13 airplanes that were assigned to inspectors responsible for overseeing manufacturers located in different regions of the nation. Another seven airplanes were purchased by private pilots and air taxi operators.
There was nothing revolutionary about the T-50. It was a fabric-covered cabin monoplane with a one-piece wood wing and a fuselage built of welded steel tubing, conventional landing gear and was powered by two, seven-cylinder Jacobs L-4MB static, air-cooled radial engines each rated at 225 horsepower turning Curtiss- Reed metal, fixed-pitch propellers. At nearly 10 feet in length, the cabin was spacious with more than enough room for the pilot and four passengers. Entry and exit was through a door on the left side of the fuselage.
By 1940 America was gearing up for war. It was supporting Great Britain with massive amounts of weapons and equipment as diplomatic relations with Japan deteriorated. In May of that year President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress for money to build 50,000 airplanes, and in July the War Department awarded Cessna Aircraft Company an order for 33 twin- engine advanced trainers designated AT-8. The contract
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22 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
SEPTEMBER 2020