By:                   Norm Goyer

There is only one undisputed winner in the race for best-post war primary trainer and it is Cessna. They kicked off the late 1940s with their ground breaking all metal Cessna 120/140 two-passenger side-by-side trainers. The 120 was a bare bones tail dragger without flaps or  electrics. Even the stripped down version was light years ahead of its two main rivals, the Piper Cub and the Aeronca Champ. Piper, Taylorcraft and Aeronca did offer a tube and fabric side-by-side trainer while Luscombe’s Silvaire was all-metal, but was quite small and a bit tricky for student pilots to master.

The new Cessna 162-LSA retains the basic lines of the Cessna 150 series and uses the same engine.

The Cessna 120 literally blew the competition off the tarmac. The all-metal age (early ones had fabric covered wings) was upon us. Then in 1958, Cessna, reading the trend very accurately, turned the 120 into the 150 by increasing the horsepower with a Continental O-200, 100-hp engine. The big change; they added a tricycle landing gear, flaps and electrics as standard. The first 150s were not very pretty, but flying schools and their students loved them.

The cabin of the 162 has fixed seats and adjustable rudder pedals. The cabin is also much larger than the older 150.

The 150 labored on for many years and was constantly upgraded with omni-vision rear window, swept back tail, complete with sexy dorsal fin. The deluxe versions had wheel pants and special paint schemes. Cessna even built the Aerobat, an aerobatic version. It had a few modifications, such as a quick-release door, G-meter, heftier safety harnesses and a great red, white and blue paint job. We owned one for several years and our instructors would love to take it up and wring it out; it couldn’t do all maneuvers, but the ones it did were great fun. The 150 didn’t make a great seaplane until someone took out the 100-hp and bolted on a Lycoming 150 for a true 150-150 Cessna.

This is the Aerobat, an acrobatic version of the 150/152.

In the 1977 Cessna made the final change to the 150 and installed a Lycoming 110-hp engine. They reduced the flap travel by a bit but kept the tapered tubular landing gear legs. The last 152 came off the line in 1984 and everyone thought that Cessna was out of the two-place trainer business. Their 172 took up the slack, but hauling extra horsepower and two empty seats made little sense with high fuel prices.

The Cessna 152 used a Lycoming 110-hp engine.

In 2006, the FAA approved the new LSA specifications and small aircraft from Europe flooded the market. There were low-wings, high-wings, all-metal, all composite and even some tube and sailcloth ex-ultralight types that met the criteria. Even some models of the vintage Ercoupe, Cub, T’craft and Champ squeaked by. But, the one aircraft flying schools were screaming for, an LSA 150 but it did not qualify. Cessna, not wanting to give up their training system, designed their new C-162 LSA. The original prototype experienced some problens and one crashed due to poor spinning characteristics; they couldn’t recover from a spin. Cessna engineers studied the problem and designed a whole new wing which solved the problem. They replaced the Rotax engine, due to pressures from flying schools. The new engine is a version of the classic Continental O-200 100-hp engine. In the latest issue “Flying” magazine’s editor test flew the first production version and gave it a big thumbs-up.

The first Cessna two-place trainer was the 1946 Cessna 120.

Cessna is back in the trainer market with both feet and swinging.

Specifications in U.S. and Metric

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