Cessna 172 Skyhawk: "Wings for Doubting Thomas" circa 1960 Cessna Aircraft Marketing Film

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more at http://scitech.quickfound.net/aviation_news_and_search.html Public domain film from the Library of Congress Prelinger Archive, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_172 The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is a four-seat, single-engine, high-wing fixed-wing aircraft. First flown in 1955 and still in production, more Cessna 172s have been built than any other aircraft... Measured by its longevity and popularity, the Cessna 172 is the most successful mass-produced light aircraft in history. The first production models were delivered in 1956. As of 2008, more than 43,000 had been built. The Skyhawk's main competitors have been the Beechcraft Musketeer and Grumman AA-5 series (neither in production), the Piper Cherokee, and, more recently, the Diamond DA40. The Cessna 172 started life as a tricycle landing gear variant of the taildragger Cessna 170, with a basic level of standard equipment. In January 1955, the company had flown an improved variant of the Cessna 170, a Continental O-300-A-powered Cessna 170C with a larger elevator and more angular vertical tail. Although the variant was tested and certified, Cessna decided to modify it with a tricycle landing gear, and the modified Cessna 170C flew again on 12 June 1955. To reduce the time and cost of certification, the type was added to the Cessna 170 type certificate as the Model 172. Later, the 172 was given its own type certificate, 3A12. The 172 became an overnight sales success, and over 1,400 were built in 1956, its first full year of production. Early 172s were similar in appearance to the 170s, with the same straight aft fuselage and tall gear legs, although the 172 had a straight vertical tail while the 170 had a rounded fin and rudder. Later 172 versions incorporated revised landing gear and the sweptback tail which is still in use today. The final aesthetic development, in the mid-1960s, was a lowered rear deck that allowed an aft window. Cessna advertised this added rear visibility as "Omni-Vision." This airframe configuration has remained almost unchanged since then, except for updates in avionics and engines, including the Garmin G1000 glass cockpit in 2005. Production had been halted in the mid-1980s, but was resumed in 1996 with the 160 hp (120 kW) Cessna 172R Skyhawk. This was supplemented in 1998 by the 180 hp (135 kW) Cessna 172S Skyhawk SP... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna The Cessna Aircraft Company is an airplane manufacturing corporation headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, USA. Their main products are general aviation aircraft. Although they are the most well known for their small, piston-powered aircraft, they also produce business jets. The company is a subsidiary of the U.S. conglomerate Textron... The company traces its history to June 1911, when Clyde Cessna, a farmer in Rago, Kansas, built a wood-and-fabric plane and became the first person to build and fly an aircraft between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Cessna started his aircraft ventures in Enid, Oklahoma, testing many of his early planes on the salt flats. When bankers in Enid refused to lend him more money to build his planes, he moved to Wichita. Cessna Aircraft was formed in 1927 when Clyde Cessna and Victor Roos became partners in the Cessna-Roos Aircraft Company. Roos resigned just one month into the partnership selling back his interest to Cessna... Cessna Aircraft Company closed its doors from 1932 until 1934 due to the state of the economy. In 1934, Dwane Wallace, with the help of his brother Dwight, took control of the company and began the process of building it into what would become a global success. In 1933, Cessna CR-3 custom racer took its first flight. The plane won the 1933 American Air Race in Chicago and later set a new world speed record for engines smaller than 500 cubic inches by averaging 237 mph... In 1940, the U.S. Army gave Cessna their largest order to date, when they ordered 33 specially equipped Cessna T-50s. Later this same year, the Royal Canadian Air Force placed an additional order for 180 T-50s. 1946 saw Cessna return to commercial production after the revocation of wartime production restrictions (L-48) with the release of the Model 120 and Model 140. The approach was to introduce a new line of all-metal aircraft that used production tools, dies and jigs rather than the hand-built process used older tube-and-fabric construction... 1955 saw Cessna's first helicopter, the Cessna CH-1, receive FAA type certification. In 1956, Cessna released the Cessna 172 which went on to become the most produced airplane in history...