Cardinals Rule
For readers unfamiliar with Chapter 1 of the Book of Ecclesiastes, the following wise words can be found in Verse 9: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."
Even when it first flew in 1966, the Cessna 177 Cardinal was nothing new. It was basically a modernised Cessna 172. In fact, it was even designated the Cessna 172J, and it was intended to supersede the previous 172. (In turn, the 172 had started out as the 170C, a tricycle version of the Cessna 170, and replaced the 170 in the Cessna stable.)
A shiny, ground-breaking, game-changing design disrupter isn’t always an assured winner. Sometimes the best things build on existing successes and reputations. Sometimes it’s a smarter idea to improve on something that has already been done well.
The Cessna 177 is not much different to the 172 it was meant to replace. The 172 is an old cardigan: comfortable, predictable, proven, and old-fashioned. Its faults and shortcomings are usually overlooked and forgiven. The Cardinal design team wanted to modernise the 172; in fact, their design brief included the word “futuristic”. So, they made the pedestrian 172 better by using better ideas instead of proven ideas.
