Tillamook Air Museum: Cessna 180 Skywagon (photo diary)

by Ojibwa for Kossack Air Force

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Friday, Jul. 18, 2025 Friday, Jul. 18, 2025 at 7:15:04am PDT

The Cessna Aircraft Company was founded in Wichita, Kansas in 1927. In 1911, Clyde Cessna, a farmer, built and flew his own airplane. To learn the art of building and designing airplanes, he had spent a month at the Queen Airplane Company in New York. He began building wood-and-fabric airplanes in Oklahoma.

In 1924, Clyde Cessna together with Lloyd Stearman and Walter Beech formed the Travel Air Manufacturing Co. in Wichita. In 1927, he left the company to form the Cessna Aircraft Company which focused on building monoplanes.

The Tillamook Air Museum, housed in a World War II Navy Blimp Hanger in Tillamook, Oregon, has a Cessna 180 Skywagon. According to the Museum:

“The Cessna 180 is a high-performance four place civil aviation aircraft that was first produced in February 1953. The 180 employed the same wing as the Model 170, but its fuselage and uncharacteristic straight tail, as compared to Cessna’s previous airplanes, were completely new designs. It also came equipped with a powerful 230 hp Continental O-470-R six-cylinder air-cooled engine. “

According to the Museum:

“The Cessna 180 Skywagon on display is one of two that were the first light aircraft to fly over the North Pole. More than 1,700 of this model were built before production ceased in 1981.”

The Cessna 180 could be used as a transport, amphibian, floatplane, and skiplane. It has a top speed of 170 mph, a cruising speed of 164 mph, a range of 1,215 miles, and a ceiling of 19,000 feet.