Cesna Planes

The Cessna Aircraft Company was an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing corporation headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Best known for small, piston-powered aircraft, Cessna also produced business jets.

10 Facts You Didn't Know About The Cessna 172 Skyhawk

The odds pretty good that you've flown in a Cessna 172. Here are 10 things you might not have known about the Skyhawk:

1) The C172 Skyhawk was introduced in 1956.

It was equipped with a Continental O-300 145 hp (108 kW) six-cylinder, air-cooled engine and had a maximum gross weight of 2,200 lb (998 kg). Introductory base price was US $8,995.

2) The Cessna 172 started life as a tricycle landing gear variant of the taildragger Cessna 170, with a basic level of standard equipment.

3) The C172 holds the world flight endurance record.

On December 4, 1958, Robert Timm and John Cook took off from McCarran Airfield in Las Vegas, NV in a newly built Cessna 172, registration number N9172B. Sixty-four days, 22 hours, 19 minutes and 5 seconds later, they landed back at McCarran Airfield on February 4, 1959. Food and water were transferred by matching speeds with a chase car on a straight stretch of road in the desert, and hoisting the supplies aboard with a rope and bucket. Fuel was taken on by hoisting a hose from a fuel truck up to the aircraft, filling an auxiliary belly tank installed for the flight, pumping that fuel into the aircraft's regular tanks and then filling the belly tank again. The drivers steered while a second person matched speeds with the aircraft with his foot on the vehicle's accelerator pedal.

4) In 2012, a brand new Skyhawk would've cost you over $300,000.

5) In 1964, the 172E replaced electrical fuses with circuit breakers.

Gross weight increased to 2,300 lb (1,043 kg), where it would stay until the 172P. The 172E also featured a redesigned instrument panel. In total, 1,401 172Es were built that year as production continued to increase.

6) In the mid-1960s, Cessna lowered the rear deck and added an aft window. Cessna advertised this added rear visibility as "Omni-Vision."

7) The Skyhawk R was introduced in 1996 and is powered by a derated Lycoming IO-360-L2A producing a maximum of 160 horsepower (120 kW) at just 2,400 rpm.

8) In July 2010, Cessna announced it was developing an electrically powered 172 as a proof-of-concept in partnership with Bye Energy.

In July 2011, Bye Energy, whose name had been changed to Beyond Aviation, announced the prototype had commenced taxi tests on the 22nd of July, 2011 and a first flight would follow soon. In 2012, the prototype, using Panacis batteries, engaged in multiple successful test flights.

9) The militaries of Iraq, Lithuania, and Singapore, among 12 other nations, use Skyhawks in their National Air Force.

10) With 43,000+ built, and still in production, the Cessna 172 Skyhawk is the most produced aircraft of all time.