Cessna Began in Enid

Postcard of Cessna flying the Elbridge powered Silverwing near Enid, OK in 1911.
Clyde V. Cessna was born in Iowa in 1879. Cessna moved to Kansas the following year when his family settled in Kingman County. When he began working, Cessna moved to Oklahoma and eventually started his aviation career in 1911 near Enid.
Cessna was selling cars at an Overland automobile dealer in Enid, Oklahoma when in 1911 when he was struck with flying fever. He became fascinated with the Bleriot XI monoplane that traversed the English Channel in 1909.
Cessna dubbed his first airplane the "Silverwing." It was an American-built copy of the Bleriot XI. To create the light airplane he mated a Bleriot fuselage with a water-cooled, 60 hp, four-cylinder Elbridge Marine engine.
Throughout 1911 Cessna made many flights in the airplane on the Great Salt Plains near Jet, Oklahoma in an effort to teach himself how to fly. He and Silverwing suffered numerous accidents, but in December 1911 Clyde made a highly successful, five-mile flight near Enid that included turns and ended with a safe landing at the departure point.


















2 Comments:
Actually, Clyde did not name his Bleriot knock-off "Silver Wings" until he had made a dozen unsuccessful flights followed by four successful demonstration flights near Jet, OK, and then completed numerous modifications and improvements over the subsequent winter.
By the way, when he made his inaugural flight in the pseudo-Bleriot, he became the first person between the Rockies and the Mississippi River to build and fly his own airplane.
Walt Shiel
Author, Cessna Warbirds
http://www.CessnaWarbirds.com
Thanks Walt!
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