Cessna Aircraft Company
The Cessna-Roos Aircraft Company was incorporated on September 7, 1927, by Clyde V. Cessna and Victor Roos. One month later, Roos resigned and sold his interest back to Cessna. Later that year the company was renamed the Cessna Aircraft Company. He continued work on the “A” series aircraft he had begun during his partnership with Walter Beech, Lloyd Stearman and the Travel Air Aircraft Company. The partnership and Travel Air dissolved shortly before Cessna Aircraft Company was established.
The “A” series aircraft were single-wing aircraft that eliminated the need for wing struts. Cessna began offering five variations of this aircraft that were called the AW (the "W" represented the Wright engine these aircraft came equipped with). After the “A” series, Cessna developed the “B” and “C” series aircraft. In 1929, the success of these models led to the financing and development of the “D” series aircraft, Chief and Scout. All was going well, including the building of a 55,000-square-foot plant, until the stock market crash in October of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression.
WWII saw Cessna expand from a company that employed 200 people in 1940 to 6,074 by 1944. At the end of the war, Cessna was able to continue producing aircraft to sustain a short-lived demand for small aircraft that could be used for short flights.
Cessna 182R
The Cessna 182 is the next step up in size and performance from the Cessna 172. The 182 is a Cessna 180 with tricycle gear. Owners who wanted a lot more room and a little more speed from their Cessna 172 would naturally look at the 182 next. As with the Cessna 172, the Cessna 182 is excellent at being ordinary and, with over 22,000 built, this was key to its success. The 182 first flew in 1955, stopped production in 1986, and re-entered production in 1997.
Continentals powered the earlier 182s, while the retractable-gear 182s were Lycoming powered. Models progressed with higher weights over the years, with the 1978 Cessna 182Q and later R having the highest gross weights of the Cessna 182s.
Cessna went for comfort over speed with the 182 and, given the popularity of the model, they were not too far off the mark. It offers good room and payload capability. It is also stable and flies much like “a heavy 172.”