Secrets Of The Skyhawk

For an airplane that’s been around for 64 years (sing along, “When I get older!”), the 2020 172 Skyhawk is remarkably similar-looking (and flying) to early 172s. But in those 64 years, Cessna has made a lot of improvements to the model, though some folks are quick to point out that those improvements come with […]

For an airplane that sold in huge numbers for the first 30 years of its existence and at lower but steady rates since its mid-’90s comeback, the Skyhawk has suffered no shortage of disrespect over the years, even to the point of Cessna trying to replace it with new, updated models. Although Cessna never positioned […]

Cessna ended production of its single-engine airplanes, all of them, in the mid-1980s and restarted it about a decade later. When it did, it reintroduced only a handful of its former models; the 172 and 182 made the cut, but the 152 did not. So, the lowest-cost Cessna became the 172. It also became the […]

Today, we think of the 172 as a training airplane, but for at least the first 30 years of its existence, that wasn’t the case. It was a personal airplane that could do double duty as a utility plane, pipeline patrol, maybe some flight instruction, though seldom at multi-airplane flight schools. It was what it […]

It’s not like I haven’t had the chance to get to know the 172. I’ve flown maybe 50 different Skyhawks of different vintages, configurations and engines. I’ve flown fastback straight-tailed late-’50s bare-metal 172s and FADEC-equipped turbodiesel Skyhawks with flat panels splayed across the panel and seat tracks designed by NASA. I’ve flown 172s on floats, […]