Cessna 180 Skywagon – TailDragger Tiger OR Pussy Cat

^{The Cessna 180’s continued popularity, even after the advent of tri-gear designs, says a lot for this taildragger’s appeal}

Cessna never intended any of its aeroplanes to inspire romantic affection. However, the iconic 180 bushplane not only found itself a ready commercial utility market; it also captured the hearts of adventurous pilots who identified with its simple and rugged purpose - to reach the great outdoors. Where there’s miles of wilderness, there’s almost always a collection of Cessna taildraggers on wheels, floats and skis.

Cessna sold well over 6,000 180s between 1953 and 1981. Launched in response to calls for more lifting capacity than Cessna’s then top-selling Model-170 could provide, the company was fearful of putting too much power in the nose of such a lightweight aeroplane. It wasn’t without some level of anxiety that the 180’s Project Engineer, Web Moore, chose to hang Continental’s then new six-cylinder O-470 up front. The engines had been developed for Beechcraft’s V-tail Bonanza and then upped in power to 225hp for the US military’s T-34 Mentor programme. It was this engine that was chosen for the Cessna 180.

The new single replaced the company’s Model 190 and 195, which were suffering waning sales in the face of Beechcraft’s V-tail and North American’s Navion. Cessna was initially fearful of launching a single-engined tri-gear product and it wasn’t until two years after the launch of the 180, that a development programme was approved to mount a nosewheel on their 172. A year later, the 182 was unveiled using a modified 180’s airframe - indeed the little 225hp bushplane parented not only the hugely popular Skylane, but was also used as a basis for the company’s Model 210.

The 180 arrived at a time of great advancement within the light aircraft industry. Smaller aeroplanes were being used for business and were thus being equipped with an ever-increasing choice of navigational aids and features, allowing them to fly in adverse weather over longer distances. Despite its utilitarian design, the 180 became the first Cessna to embrace sufficient panel space for the early radios and transistorised Automatic Direction Finders that were swiftly becoming attractive to private owners during the late fifties.

The aircraft itself represented a major upgrade from the 170, so much so that it required an entirely new tail section, even though the cabin offered little extra space. Cessna’s management was sensitive to any adverse handling qualities and even though they could see Beechcraft’s V-tail gaining in popularity, their flight test department was still focused on perfecting the taildragger concept. The new taildragger was steeped in Cessna’s then traditional engineering and marketing strategy, even though the 180 was to later parent not only the 185, but more importantly, the company’s 182 and ultimate Bonanza competitor, the retractable 210.

As the Cessna 180 was being developed, the company went to great lengths to ensure it would have the friendliest handling characteristics, including being easy to land - ironical considering the model’s later reputation. Like the 170 and even earlier two-place 120 and 140, the 180 employed Steve Whittman’s two-piece sprung-steel undercarriage and Cessna perhaps became a victim of their own success when the company eventually adopted tri-gear versions of all its taildraggers. The company was almost obsessive in ensuring the 180 could be three-pointed by an average pilot: they almost completely ignored any notion the aircraft must be equally gentle when doing wheelers. When Cessna started building nosewheel versions, they applied equal vigour in ensuring these were easy to land too - so easy in fact they completely overshadowed their taildragger relatives.

By 1957, the Cessna 180 had received a slightly more powerful engine with a five horsepower increase that was to stay with the aeroplane throughout its production life - indeed, most of the engine model changes throughout the 180 followed Cessna’s attempts to reduce highish airframe vibration levels. As the light aircraft industry matured, so did Cessna, who by the early sixties wanted to introduce more and more models as well as lengthy options’ lists. Despite having been reluctant to place even a 225hp engine into such a small airframe during the early fifties, by 1961 the company had dramatically upped the available power by introducing the Cessna 185 with 260hp - later increased to 300.

On the ground

For those familiar with a 172 and 182, a Cessna 180 is an imposing aeroplane on the ground. Its tall main gear legs hoist the propeller spinner to head-height and although it’s all downhill from there to the tail, the step fixed beneath each door is a necessary addition to climb in and out of the cabin with any measure of grace. Like any high wing Cessna, there’s a climb involved to get to the fuel filler caps to take a dipstick reading - more sedentary pilots need to have a set of steps if this task is going to be completed without cardiac distress. Those more nimble will use the tyres and a pair of narrow steps attached to each side of the firewall.

The 180 set a Cessna trend in countering varying stick forces with artificial handling aids. This particular model thus motivated an all-moving tailplane trim set up, which was needed to provide acceptable control forces in the landing configuration at different flap settings, as well as reducing trim drag in cruise. It was particularly desirable during a go-around with 40-degrees of flap deployed. The handling issues were aggravated by the new taildragger’s hefty six cylinder O-470 engine, which weighed almost 60 kilos more than the Cessna 170’s powerplant. The company spent a long time devising a satisfactory (to them) control circuit, with the objective of making the new model easy to land. Cessna also dumped the pretty curved fins that had adorned all their singles. The company realised that squared-off profiles not only aided directional control on the ground, but were becoming fashionable, especially as the profile had been adopted by the soon to be launched and much admired model-310 twin.

With some two inches of extra cabin width over a Cessna 170/172, there’s sufficient ... Click here to Read more