Cessna 172 Skyhawk

The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is a four seat, single engine, high fixed wing aircraft. First flown in 1955 and still in production, more Cessna 172’s have been built than any other aircraft. Early 172’s were similar in appearance to the 170, with the same straight aft fuselage and tall gear legs, althought the 172 had a straight vertical tail while the 170 had a rounded fin and rudder. Later 172 versions incorporated revised landing gear and sweptback tail which is still in use today. The final aesthetic development, in the mid 1960s, was a lowered rear deck that allowed an aft window. Cessna advertised this added rear visibility as “omni-vision.” This airframe configuration has remaind almost unchanged since then, except for updates in avionics and engines, including the Garmin G1000 cockpit in 2005. Production had been halted in the mid 1980s, but was resumed in 1996.