In 1911, Clyde Vernon Cessna, a 31-year-old farmer/mechanic from Rago, Kansas, became fascinated with the embryonic technology of aviation. Cessna was an Overland automobile dealer in Enid, Oklahoma, but after watching the exhibitions of the Moisant International Aviation Air Circus in Oklahoma City in February, he switched his focus from automobiles to airplanes. This changed his life, and ultimately made the Cessna name synonymous for lightplanes and general aviation.

Shortly after seeing the Air Circus, Cessna built a copy of the French Bleriot monoplane. When he lifted off on the craft's maiden voyage, he established himself as the first person between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains to build and fly his own airplane. As was common in those early years of aviation, Clyde Cessna taught himself to fly. Before the year was out, he had mastered the airplane—despite a dozen "unsuccessful" attempts—and had made four demonstration flights over the Great Salt Plains near Jet, Oklahoma. For the next several years, he modified and improved his aircraft in the winter months and conducted flying exhibitions throughout Oklahoma and Kansas during the warmer months. His modifications included improved landing gear and an air cooled engine. He dubbed the revised aircraft "Silver Wings."

In 1916, Cessna moved his aircraft operation to Wichita, Kansas, under the auspices of J. J. Jones of the Jones Motor Car Company. This move prophesied the eventual coronation of Wichita as the "Air Capital of the World"—where more aircraft manufacturers established their headquarters than in any other single location in the world. In exchange for space in the Jones Motor Car plant to construct a new aircraft of his own design, Cessna agreed to paint the name "Jones Six" on the underside of his new airplane's wing to advertise the Jones Light Six automobile. Cessna flew his new "Cessna Comet" with its partially enclosed cockpit, from Wichita to Blackwell, Oklahoma, at the heady average speed of 124.62 miles-per-hour. Cessna anticipated an active flying demonstration season in the summer of 1917, but America's involvement in World War I interrupted his flying enterprises. As a result, he returned to farming in Rago, Kansas.

But destiny was not thwarted so easily. At the end of the "War to End All Wars," Cessna returned to aviation. In 1925, he joined forces with Walter Beech and Lloyd Stearman to form the Travel Air Manufacturing Company. Cessna was the company's first president and designed the four-place cabin monoplane on which a successful series of Travel Air models was based, including the first civilian aircraft to fly from the United States to Hawaii.

However, unsatisfied with the emphasis on biplane designs at Travel Air, Cessna resigned in 1927 and moved into a small shop on West Douglas Street in Wichita. In August, he completed a new four-place Comet with a fully-cantilevered wing and 120-horsepower Anzani radial engine. The following month,…