This 1953 Cessna 170B Is a Taildragger Fit for Family Travel and an ‘AircraftForSale’ Top Pick

Today’s Top Pick is a 1953 Cessna 170B.

Cessna’s 170 is a classic post-World War II design, with four seats, high, strut-braced wing, and conventional (for the time) landing gear with a tailwheel. Early models had fabric-covered wings while the 170A and 170B have all-metal wings. General aviation aircraft structures were advancing, but in some ways the 170 remained old-fashioned.

Aircraft manufacturers had begun to notice that many pilots find aircraft with tricycle-style landing gear are easier to handle on the ground than tailwheel airplanes. Piper, Cessna’s longtime rival, started building the Tri-Pacer, which essentially was a Piper Pacer taildragger modified with a nosewheel. It handled easily and grew in popularity. Piper’s success with the Tri-Pacer convinced designers and engineers at Cessna to test a similarly modified 170, despite opposition from company executives. The result was the Cessna 172, which was destined to become one of the best-selling GA aircraft. 

This 1953 Cessna 170B has a total of 3,477 hours on the airframe and 446 hours on its Continental O-300 engine.

Pilots seeking an economical vintage taildragger with enough cabin space to serve as a family aircraft should consider this 1953 Cessna 170B, which is available for $85,000 on AircraftFor Sale.

You can arrange financing of the aircraft through FLYING Finance. For more information, email info@flyingfinance.com.