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FROM THE FLYING PIONEERS BIOGRAPHIES OF HAROLD E. MOREHOUSE

                  CLYDE V. CESSNA

Pioneer Plane Builder-Aviator-Founder of Cessna Aircraft Company

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    Clyde V. Cessna was born at Hawthorne, Iowa, December 5, 1879.  When he was about one year old the family moved to a farm near Rago, Kansas where he grew up doing farm work and attending nearby schools.
    Mechanically inclined, he learned to service and operate farm machinery, including grain threshers.  Later his interest turned to automobiles, first in mechanical and service work, then he discovered he could sell, and by 1910 was head of the Overland Automobile Agency at Enid, Oklahoma.  There he sold over one hundred cars and thoroughly established himself.
    Late that year Cessna learned that the Moisant International Aviators were to make aeroplane flights at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on January 14th to 18th, 1911 and decided to attend.  There he saw French pilots Rene Barrier,Rene Simon and Roland Garros, and American Charles K. Hamilton flying.  All the Frenchmen used Blariot-type monoplanes and Hamilton a Curtiss biplane. The troupe also staged races between a Fiat automobile, driven by Jon Seymour, and their planes in flight.  Barrier made some 15-minute cross-country trips while there.
    Cessna was very interested, and determined he would build a plane and
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