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  • Aviation History

    THE FIRST 172

    Jul 03, 2018 4 minutes
    BY STEPHAN WILKINSON

    “Restore a Cessna 172 Skyhawk?” a serious warbirder might ask. “Why bother?”

    Because it just might be the best all-around airplane ever manufactured, for starters. Viceless, safe, incredibly easy to fly, relatively affordable and with performance far exceeding the capabilities of its comparable predecessors, the 172 helped turn general aviation from a hobby into a business. Cessna called it Land-O-Matic: “Drive it up, drive it back down,” and their early 172 ads featured photos of nonpilots supposedly doing exactly that.

    Traditionalists to this day roll their eyes, but more Skyhawks have been manufactured—and are still being

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