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.
