Clyde Cessna was a farm boy. He was born in Iowa in 1879 before his parents took him to Kansas at the age of three. In the one-room schoolhouse, he reportedly got exceptional grades and was noted in the local Kingman newspaper for having perfect attendance.[1] Outside of school Clyde Cessna had an Uncanny gift for mechanics. The local neighbors would often ask for his assistance and his abilities as a mechanic as it appeared he could fix just about anything. When Cessna was around only 15 he was sent out to repair a neighbor’s knotter. A knotter is a piece of farm machinery that used a mechanical jaw to tightly wind a sheaf of wheat in wine, tie a knot, and cut off the excess twine with a moving blade.[2] The machine was both costly and complex as it consisted of over 3,800 parts and was notorious for breaking down.[3] When young Cessna arrived at the scene he was greeted by a panicked farmer who informed him that he only had a few hours to fix the Knotter as there was a large thunderstorm was blowing in, which would surely damage the crop. Quickly, Cessna got to work and was able to repair the machine in no time at all. With the knotter operational the wheat was harvested in a few hours before the storm blew in later that day.[4] It is evident that life on the farm played a key role in Clyde Cessna’s development as an inventor. He worked with complex farm equipment from which he obtained many of the skills he later used to build and invent aircraft. These skills were not taught in the one-room Kansas schoolhouse Cessna was educated in. He attended neither high school or college. His formal education ended in the fifth-grade.[5] Clyde Cessna's grandson Claire Cessna remembers him having a mind like a steel trap. That he was gifted in his ability to process and recall information. Cessna was brilliant, and his youth on his father’s farm was instrumental to his learning mechanics as an opportunity presented itself every day.

[1] Ella Kinsley, "Educational Collum," The Kingman Journal, November 25, 1892, https://www.newspapers.com/image/425854516, 3.

[2] Sterling Evans, Bound in Twine: The History and Ecology of the Henequen-wheat Complex for Mexico and the American and Canadian Plain. (College Station: Texas A and M University Press, 2007), 6.

[3] Ibid, 13.

[4] Jeffrey L. Rodengen, The Legend of Cessna. (Fort Lauderdale: Write Stuff Enterprises Inc., 1998), 23.

[5] Ibid.

On June 6, 1905, a 26-year-old Clyde Cessna married Europa Elizabeth Dotzour. Her granddaughter Janice Clark remembers her as a quiet but hard working woman. She was an introvert, which was the exact opposite of husband, but she was a very kind person. She was a talented cook and helped on the farm by raising the chickens and doing the house work. Most important of all she stood by her husband through thick and thin, supporting him through it all. In the same year that Clyde and Europa got married, Clyde Cessna bought his own humble 40-acre farm near Rago, Kansas from his brother, Roy Cessna, for the price of $400 and one bay pacing horse.[1] The property had a barn, a chicken coop and a one-story square building later called the machine shop. Clyde Cessna would call that farm his home until his death in 1956.

It was not much but Cessna made his living on his farm and lending his skills with a thresher out to other farms. A thresher was no simple piece of farm machinery. With the amount of complicated moving parts, the upkeep required a good eye for machinery and a superb memory. It was imperative to have the knowledge and ability to manage these machines as it was not easy to just call in a mechanic. Clyde Cessna spent a lot of time threshing. In fact, he seemed rather passionate about his thresher business as it was something he returned to later in his life. In one day’s work in 1907, he threshed 1,018 bushels of corn for a Mr. A. W. York, enough to get mentioned in the Kingman Journal that claimed the amount harvested was unmatched for a single days work.[2] In 1908 he participated in a threshermens’ convention in Wichita.[3]  At the convention, he was one of three hundred participants buying, selling threshers as well as sharing tricks of the trade. This was an annual event that saw an organized group of ‘threshermen’ convene to share insights on their farms and was large enough that it garnered full-page coverage in the Wichita Beacon.[4] Clyde Cessna by this point in his life was through and through a farmer. He was good at operating and maintaining his farm equipment and was the picture of an industrious Kansas farmer.

 Cessna was good at what he did, and he was successful with his threshing jobs but wanted to make a more profitable living. In 1907, after several pushes from his brother, he bought am eight horsepower Reo automobile and started selling cars in the Kingman area near his home in Rago.[5] The dealership in Kansas, however, went bust so he and his wife moved out to Enid Oklahoma and sold cars at the overland dealership. Cessna was a talented salesman and his knowledge of machines came in handy. He reportedly sold 100 new cars in the first year.[6] Cessna had cut out a life for himself selling cars in Enid and harvesting wheat on his Kansas farm. There was nothing to suggest that he was looking to do anything else until one fateful day in January of 1910. Cessna attended an Oklahoma City air exhibition and found his new passion, Aeroplanes. He saw French pilots flying Type XI monoplanes, the same model used on the first flight over the English Channel. Captivated by the show he decided to leave selling automobiles and pursue a career in aviation.[7]

[1] Edward H Phillips, Cessna, A Master’s Expression, (Eagan, Minnesota: Flying Books Publishers & Wholesalers, 1985), 7.

[2] "Adams," The Kingman Journal, March 22, 1907, https://www.newspapers.com/image/425927305.

[3] Harper Advocate, Mach 6, 1908,https://www.newspapers.com/image/420187501.

[4] "Wichita's Big Convention," The Wichita Beacon, February 29, 1908, https://www.newspapers.com/image/76743079.

[5] Phillips, Cessna, A Master’s Expression, 7 

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid, 8.

Clyde Cessna traveled to New York City to work three weeks at the Queen Aeroplane Company. There he spent three weeks learning as much as he could about aircraft while working on the monoplane assembly line.[1] In 1911 Cessna purchased his first airplane, Silverwings, in New York for $7,500 He had it shipped to his home in Enid, so it could be tested out on the nearby salt flats.[2] The plane came in pieces and without the engine, it was up to Cessna and what he knew about Kansas farm machinery and automobiles to figure out how to make his new contraption fly.[3] Cessna and his brother Roy spent months assembling, crashing, and re-assembling their new plane out on the saltfalts in Oklahoma in a desperate effort to get it up and running. All the while they became the laughing stock of the locals who wondered if they would ever fly.[4] Crash after crash left Cessna broken physically, spiritually, and financially. Each crash cost him about $100 in repairs.[5] Angry, tired, and in pain, after yet another crash he is famously quoted, “I am going to make this thing fly, do you hear me? I am going to make this thing fly and then I am going to set it afire and I’ll never have another thing to do with aeroplanes.”[6] After 12 crashes, Cessna once again got into the cockpit for try number 13. And finally, after months of frustration, he and his brother flew their first flight. It was not long before they found success flying for airshows around Oklahoma and Kansas. They made a considerable income doing so. Cessna made occasional visits back to his farm, but, in 1912 after a near fatal and very expensive crash, Cessna, his family, now including his two children Eldon and Wanda, and Silverwings were all shipped back to his farm in Kansas. And it was there they would stay. Cessna would eventually reassemble the craft and begin air exhibitions in Kansas. [7]

[1] Phillips, Cessna, A Master’s Expression, 10.

[2] Rodengen, The Legend of Cessna, 26.

[3] Ibid, 28

[4] Ibid, 29-30

[5] Ibid 29

[6] Kansas Historical Society, "Cessna, Clyde," last modified June 1, 2018. https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/clyde-cessna/12006.

[7] Rodengen, The Legend of Cessna, 26.

The farm was Clyde Cessna’s safety net. In Oklahoma, Cessna risked life, limb, and wallet to get his airplane off the ground. In order to save money, the Cessna family, consisting of himself, his wife and two children, Eldon and Wonda, all lived in the single-story barn called the machine shop. It is not a large structure. The ground floor is a single wide room was Cessna would keep, repair, and improve on Silverwings. There was a set of sliding doors on the outside that were used to get the plane in and out.  Cessna built an upstairs loft for his family to live in. It was a cramped space but was livable.[1] The family stuck it out for several winters while Clyde and Roy reassembled Silverwings, improving on the original design to the point Clyde Cessna could call it his own. Soon, the small town of Rago and throughout Kingman county knew Cessna for his flying machine. He flew it to the market, on errands for Europa, and even to Sunday Church. It was so useful to the Cessna family that he called it the family carriage.[2] 

On his feet again, Cessna set out profitably flying air shows around Kansas and Oklahoma with this airplane as they got back on their feet again.[3] Newspapers would advertise the spectacle of the Birdman of Enid all across the state. They wrote stories of the farm boy turned aviator flying to their town to show off the plane. Cessna spent his time farming and flying. He soon built his 1914 model, which was his fastest aircraft yet and one of his most profitable. Cessna made $250 for a forty-minute flight going circles around Larned, Kansas.[4] His flights were truly a spectacle for the time. A that was just one of his many shows. In the winter of 1914, now squarely back on his feet economically, Clyde bought and transported a new home to the farm and added a hanger to the property to give his family and his three airplanes respectable quarters.[5] With the money Clyde made. Additionally, Cessna could afford to hire our workers to manage the farm while he was away, allowing him to perform even more flyovers. Cessna was finding real success and was commissioned for flights in everything from ball games to state fairs. Any time his shows took him near home, however, he would be sure to fly in for a visit and perhaps family dinner.[6] Returning to the farm allowed Cessna to get back on his feet. Saving money and living out of the small structure on the property, Clyde was able to improve his air crafts and afford to move a real house to make the farm a real home for his family. 

In 1916 Clyde Cessna was approached by the Wichita Aero Club to build planes in their town, to which he agreed. Located on the property of J.J. Jones Motor Company in Wichita, Kansas, this venture became the unofficial beginning of Cessna Aircraft and was the first airplane factory in Wichita. By 1917 Cessna was well into the business of manufacturing planes, operating a flight school, and even held the U.S. speed record at 124 mph.[7] However, just as soon as Cessna had established himself, the United States entered the First World War.  Cessna was forced to close his factory and halt his airshows due to wartime rationing. From 1917 to 1925 Clyde Cessna stepped away from the airplane business to feed the doughboys and farm his 40-acre property.[8]

[1] Rodengen, The Legend of Cessna, 35.

[2] “Kingman Youth Flies to Market and to Fairs,” The Topeka Daily Capital, September 15, 1915. https://www.newspapers.com/image/64103302/.

[3] Rodengen, The Legend of Cessna, 36.

[4] “Airship Flights at Burdett,” The Tiller and Toiler, August 14, 1914, https://www.newspapers.com/image/199522957, 3.

[5] “Kingman Youth Flys to Market and to Fairs.”

[6] Phillips, Cessna, A Master’s Expression, 23.

[7] Rodengen, The Legend of Cessna, 39.

[8] Phillips, Cessna, A Master’s Expression, 33.

In 1927 Clyde Cessna started his most successful venture, the Cessna Aircraft Company. Clyde Cessna was at a high point and his new business was doing quite well. The company received several contracts and even produced the first commercial plane to make the fight from California to Hawaii.[1] The good fortune Cessna was enjoying, however, was all brought to an end with the beginning of the Great Depression. With the sudden disappearance of the airplane market, Cessna Aircraft went broke. Out of options, the board members voted Clyde Cessna out of his president role in the company and shut down all manufacturing. Left with only one airplane, Clyde and his son Eldon Cessna participated in air races in order to keep the company alive. Together they designed planes to be faster than the competition, relying on Eldon’s education as an engineer from Kansas State. There is much to be said about Clyde Cessna’s genius but by this point, he relied on his son, Eldon to bring in new information.[2]

 Clyde Cessna then started the C.V Cessna Company to design racing planes and employed several racing pilots. They fought for the life of the company and saw success racing and eventually, with the help of his son, Eldon and his nephew, Dwayne Wallace, Clyde Cessna regained leadership of Cessna Aircraft and reopened for business in 1934. All of them volunteered to work without wages to keep the company alive.[3] The times were hard for Cessna and his family partners. Despite reopening it was tough for them all to go without a wage. Cessna was able to manage but his son Eldon could not make ends meet. He was forced to leave his father’s company and moved to southern California to find aviation work there. Eldon’s daughter Janice explained that it was just too difficult to keep going; he did not have a farm that put food on the table as his father did so he was forced to pack up and leave. On top of financial trouble, Clyde Cessna was struck with a tragedy that distanced him from his love of flying. In 1933, he witnessed his pilot Roy Liggett die in a horrible crash. He was flying Ms. Wanda, a plane Clyde Cessna designed and named for his daughter. The wing separated from the aircraft midflight and Roy was killed instantly when the plane hit the ground.[4] Clyde Cessna was down and out with his airplane business and decided that is was time for his career to come to a close. In 1936 Cessna sold his interests in the company to his nephew Dwayne Wallace, purchased an additional 640 acres of land, and retired to his farm in Rago, Kansas.[5]

[1] “Farmer Clyde Cessna Turned Out Wichita’s First Airplane,” Wichita Eagle, September 20, 1958.

[2] Janice A. Clarke, Interview, November 5, 2018.

[3] Rodengen, The Legend of Cessna, 77.

[4] Ibid, 78 

[5] Ibid, 79

Clyde Cessna made very few appearances after his retirement save for the opening of the Wichita municipal airport, to which he was a large donor. He also made small-town history by flying the plane that delivered the first airmail to Kingman county, consisting of 1,500 letters.[1] Cessna spent most of his retirement working the land and inventing improved farm equipment. For years in the summer, his son Eldon would travel back from California to the Rago farm to help with the wheat harvest. Janice Clarke remembers helping her grandmother Europa in the kitchen while Clyde, Eldon, and her brother Claire all got up at the crack of dawn to harvest the wheat. Despite his absence, Cessna Aircraft, under the leadership of Dwayne Wallace, went on to be the largest manufacturer of general aircraft in the nation and profited significantly from contracts made during World War 2. Cessna was an innovator in the field of aviation, a successful and determined businessman, and of course a Kansas farmer. The Rago, Kansas farm was always a returning point for Cessna. There he developed his understanding of machinery. He recovered from his earliest crashes. He overcame adversity and failure. He raided his family. The farm helped support his ambitions and was truly his home. In 1956, after a long day of tinkering with his machines, Clyde Cessna passed away in his home, the Rago Kansas farm.

[1] Rodengen, The Legend of Cessna, 83

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Cessna Aircraft Company. 1982 Aircraft Observer’s Guide. Wichita, Kansas: Cessna Aircraft Company Air Age Education Department, 1982.

———. Cessna Aircraft Observer’s Guide. Wichita, Kansas: Cessna Aircraft Company Air Age Education Department, 1980.

———. The Sensible Citation: A Compilation of “Weather Trends” Articles on the Birth of Cessna’s Remarkable New Business Jet. Wichita, Kansas: Cessna Aircraft Company Commercial Jet Marketing Division, n.d.

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Kisling, Jack. “Zipped Wichita Airplane to Records.” Wichita Eagle. May 17, 1959.

Mayborn, Mitch, and Bob Pickett. Cessna Guidebook. Vol. I. American Aircraft Series. Dallas, Texas: Flying Enterprise Publications, 1973.

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Phillips, Edward H. Cessna, A Master’s Expression. Eagan, Minnesota: Flying Books Publishers & Wholesalers, 1985.

———. “C.V. Cessna - Wichita’s Aviator.” King Air, July 2017.

———. “Monoplane Fever!” Avionics News, September 1992.

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The Kingman Journal. "Adams." March 22, 1907. https://www.newspapers.com/image/425927305.

 “The Perils of Positive Thinking.” Forbes, April 1, 1972.

The Tiller and Toiler. “Airship Flights at Burdett.” August 14, 1914. https://www.newspapers.com/image/199522957

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Wichita State collection of Cessna materials