A couple months ago I read these two books:
Cessna: A Master's Expression by Edward H. Phillips
Cessna, wings for the world: The single-engine development story by William D Thompson
The book by Phillips is mostly a biography of Clyde Cessna, though when Clyde retires the book continues on with the story of the Cessna company. What struck me was that up until after WW2 all the airplanes of Clyde and the Cessna company were cantilevered monoplanes. None had struts, none were biplanes. When the company went after the training market in 1946 they finally chose to use wing struts on the Cessna 140 in order to reduce costs. In one sense the subsequent wing strut models were something of a aberration in the Cessna model line.
Clyde had been retired by the time struts were introduced. He had had no technical training, and for that matter had mostly self-taught himself how to fly (I lost count of the number of crashes and airplane repairs he went through.) But he very much preferred the streamlining afforded by cantilevered wings, whether attached high or low.
Thompson, author of the second book, was a test pilot for Cessna. He provides some interesting insights and history of the airplanes he was personally involved with testing. It was interesting to see how they went about tweaking things to get satisfying control feel. He does write about the testing of all the models up to the time the book was published (1991.) But I found the coverage of them not as interesting as the earlier models he had a hand in.
They are older books and would be of interest mostly to those with an interest in Cessna history and a few of the engineering choices.
Cessna: A Master's Expression by Edward H. Phillips
Cessna, wings for the world: The single-engine development story by William D Thompson
The book by Phillips is mostly a biography of Clyde Cessna, though when Clyde retires the book continues on with the story of the Cessna company. What struck me was that up until after WW2 all the airplanes of Clyde and the Cessna company were cantilevered monoplanes. None had struts, none were biplanes. When the company went after the training market in 1946 they finally chose to use wing struts on the Cessna 140 in order to reduce costs. In one sense the subsequent wing strut models were something of a aberration in the Cessna model line.
Clyde had been retired by the time struts were introduced. He had had no technical training, and for that matter had mostly self-taught himself how to fly (I lost count of the number of crashes and airplane repairs he went through.) But he very much preferred the streamlining afforded by cantilevered wings, whether attached high or low.
Thompson, author of the second book, was a test pilot for Cessna. He provides some interesting insights and history of the airplanes he was personally involved with testing. It was interesting to see how they went about tweaking things to get satisfying control feel. He does write about the testing of all the models up to the time the book was published (1991.) But I found the coverage of them not as interesting as the earlier models he had a hand in.
They are older books and would be of interest mostly to those with an interest in Cessna history and a few of the engineering choices.