The EAA Aviation Foundation, Inc is running a sweepstakes to give away a fully restored 1947 Cessna 120 in support of its wide ranging lobbying, safety, and educational efforts.
The prize is a fine example of the breed, equipped with a Rolls Royce O-200 good for 100 ponies. The plane has only logged 105 hours since its last major overhaul, with a full restoration done in 1998. That led to a host of mild improvements that don’t detract from the classic Cessna looks and feel, like an improved, quieter exhaust system, circuit breakers on all the primaries, an alternator, and much comfier seats. All the cabling, trim, and chains have been upgraded, rebuilt, and refreshed wherever possible, wrapped up in a set of all new skins. The resulting plane was minty fresh and shiny enough to take home “Best of Class” at AirVenture 1999.
Cessnas like these are an interesting window into the new zeitgeist of a post-war aviation industry. 1947 was an odd time for aircraft manufacturers, with a huge body of well-trained pilots hungry for personal aviation. Cessna’s 120 was one of their attempts to create the ideal do-all, affordable runabout, paring down the ‘excesses’ of the 140 (like electrical and flaps) to hit a pricepoint a young returning GI could afford. It was one of the last to feature a fabric wing, but retained the newfangled aluminum fuselage of higher-end models. Today, it’s a fun throwback to simpler times, when a six-pack on the panel counted as “fully outfitted” and avgas was a few cents a gallon. One lucky winner can at least travel back in time in their mind, if they win the grand prize. The rest of us will have to imagine.
The sweepstakes will run through October 15, 2015, when the winning entry will be selected. The EAA Aviation Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to supporting the Experimental Aviation Association, supporting its broad ranging efforts of supporting affordable, safe, and accessible flight. Sweepstakes entrants must reside in the USA or Canada. $25 gets 18 entries into the sweepstakes, but promo code "AIRSPEED" gets an additional 25% as a bonus while it lasts.
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