What happened to the only Cessna 160 ?

[Hasher]

Hi all

Back in about 2010 - 2012 the Cessna 160 prototype appeared on Ebay. It seems like an ex congressman and aircraft dealer had saved it from the scrap dealer in the mid 1970's. It sold from it's Kansas home to an unknown buyer. The owner died and his son doesn't where it went.
Does anyone know where this aircraft ended up ? Attached some photos of it's Kansas resting place.

Thanks Paul

699769986999

[martymayes]

Hi all

Back in about 2010 - 2012 the Cessna 160 prototype appeared on Ebay. It seems like an ex congressman and aircraft dealer had saved it from the scrap dealer in the mid 1970's. It sold from it's Kansas home to an unknown buyer. The owner died and his son doesn't where it went.
Does anyone know where this aircraft ended up ? Attached some photos of it's Kansas resting place.


From aviation writer Daryl Murphy "The Cessnas that got away" May 8, 2005


Model 160-Cessna was selling most of the single-engine aircraft produced in the world in 1962. With models ranging from the $7,495 two-place 150B trainer to the $23,975 Model 210B, the company had eight models filling the niches. What it needed now, the reasoning went, was a design that would offer more airplane for less money, and the answer could possibly lie in changing labor-intensive production procedures. The four-place Model 160 was to be priced at $8,450, between the 150 and the 172. Its unfashionably square-cut conventionality was more a concession to the economies of manufacturing than to aesthetics of its market.

Fuselage and wing skins relied on heavy beading for strength and low weight, and the strut-braced constant-chord wings and free-caster nose gear provided simplicity of manufacture. The prototype was powered by a 125 hp Franklin engine, and it took the airplane to 134 mph. The 145 hp O-300 Continental engine then in use in the 172 was specified for the production Model 160, and would provide a top speed of 143 mph. In a proposed military version--the 160M--a Continental IO-360 of 210 hp would push it to a theoretical 174 mph top speed.

Flight tests in 1962-63 showed the model had promise, but not enough to make the necessary production and tooling adjustments, so the project was eventually abandoned and the company went back to doing things the way they had always been done. The sole prototype hung around until 1974, when it was reportedly scrapped.

However, the salvage yard kept putting off the job, and a mechanic from Northeast Kansas bought the remains of the prototype a few years ago and has offered it for sale.


There have been numerous sightings on the internet over the past 15 yrs with accompanying stories ranging from
"my neighbor bought it and it's being restored" to "my neighbor bought it and made a dog house out if it"
I'm pretty sure the best TV detective ever (whoever that would be) couldn't find any remains from it.

[Hasher]

Thanks for the reply Marty. Already done some armchair detective work myself . Spoke to a person who was interested in buying it in 2008 and due to the GFC he couldn't afford it . He did however inspect it and said had only the fuselage and some factory jigs. Later when listed on Ebay it didn't have a buyer and later sold off ebay for about $4500 . Spoke to the ex owners son who doesn't have any interest in aircraft. But he remembers the aircraft which sold as part of his fathers estate. I did think it could be scrapped but who would pay $4500 only to dispose of as scrap value ? Unless Cessna itself bought it to get off the market but I doubt they have any interest anymore. Besides asking industry people here I did place an advert on trade a plane without any responses.

[cluttonfred]

Were there any detailed articles done about it back in the day? It looks very much like a cross between a C172 and BD-4 and would likely provide some good inspiration for a similar high-wing homebuilt design.

[BoKu]

... It looks very much like a cross between a C172 and BD-4...

My thoughts exactly!

It looks like the sort of development exercise you'd undertake to test a particular balance between manufacturing cost, performance, and aesthetics. I can only presume that the slab-sided fuselage, constant chord wing, and external stiffening trenches subtracted more from the aircraft than they contributed to the bottom line, and were therefore deemed a dead end. Not a failed experiment, but rather the acceptance of the null hypothesis.

--Bob K.

[BoKu]

...and would likely provide some good inspiration for a similar high-wing homebuilt design.

BTW, Dick Schreder (the original HP sailplane guy) designed a high-wing airplane that looked very like this, except with (of course) V tail and cantilever wing. I believe it was called the Airmate One or something like that. It used to pop up on Barnstormers every few years, but I've lost track of it.

--Bob K.