Agricultural Aircraft: Cessna 188

The Cessna 188 is a family of light agricultural airplanes produced between 1966 and 1983 by the Cessna Aircraft Company. The various versions of the 188 — the AGwagon, AGpickup, AGtruck and AGhusky constituted Cessna's line of agricultural aircraft. In the early 1960s Cessna decided to expand their already wide line of light aircraft by entering the agricultural aircraft market. They surveyed pilots and operators of other brands of agricultural aircraft to see what features and capabilities these operators were looking for. The resulting aircraft was a conventional single-seat, piston-powered, strut-braced low-winged agricultural airplane. The Cessna 188 was first flown on 19 February 1965. The aircraft was certified and entered production in February 1966, with 241 aircraft delivered the first year. The initial design of the Cessna 188 was so successful that over its 17-year production run the basic airframe remained unchanged. Only the engines and the agricultural products dispensing systems were upgraded, other than some minor changes to the ventilation systems. A total of 3967 Cessna 188s of all four variants were built during its production run. The aircraft on display in our museum is a type A188B-300 Agtruck. (On loan from Pan Havacılık ve Tic. A.Ş. )