page_title: Clyde Cessna
section_title: The middle years
hierarchical_section_title: Clyde Cessna / Biography / The middle years
caption_attribution_description: English: The building where Clyde Cessna built some aircraft.
context_page_description: Clyde Vernon Cessna was an American aircraft designer, aviator, and early aviation entrepreneur. He is best known as the principal founder of the Cessna Aircraft Corporation.
context_section_description: After the success of the Silverwing, Cessna permanently quit his work with the automobile industry to pursue his interests in aviation. Between 1912 and 1915, Cessna developed several new monoplanes, all powered by an Anzani 6-cylinder with 40–60 hp. During this time, Clyde often flew his aircraft at holiday events and county fairs, an endeavour that at the time proved to be lucrative.
  It was in 1916 that Clyde acquired a vacant building to begin building a new aircraft for the 1917 aviation exhibition season. His factory served a dual purpose, as he also opened a flight school in which he enrolled five student pilots. However, in April 1917 when the United States declared war, the exhibition flying market ground to a halt. With his primary source of income grounded, Clyde returned to his old home near Rago, Kansas, where he resumed his duties on the family farm.
caption: The factory from 1917
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