Small-plane designers today love trying out new powerplants, and some of those experiments are big successes, though most fall short of expectations. The Cessna 175 Skylark, introduced soon after the 172 Skyhawk (which, ladies and gentlemen, needs no introduction), wasn’t simply a 172 with a different engine. It was just as Cessna envisioned it—a step-up plane for those wanting more speed, power and hauling ability than a 172 but less than a 182. It was exactly that, too, though it got little love back in the day, mostly because of that engine.

The 175 is actually built to a different type certificate than the 172, a rarity in GA then and now, and its engine, the Continental GO-300, was widely regarded as a failure, for some good and not-so-good reasons. Though for a failure, the 175 did well. Cessna built more than 2,000 of them, around half of which are still flying around somewhere—for some reason, a lot of 175s wound up in Europe.

The “G” in the engine’s designation stands for “geared,” and indeed the GO-300 features a reduction gearbox, allowing the prop to spin at happy-place rpm (2,400 rpm) while allowing the engine to do its reciprocating thing at better than 3,000 rpm, which, along with other design changes, upped the output of the GO-300 to 175, compared to 145 for the O-300 in the 172.

Many pilots, who back in the late ’50s were apparently creatures of habit, couldn’t get their paws around the idea of operating the engine at the recommended, higher-than-usual 3,200 rpm and instead throttled way back to “preserve” the motor, which had exactly the opposite effect, reducing the GO-300’s overhaul interval to even less than the recommended 1,200 hours, compared to the 1,800 hours of the non-GO-300s.

When operated correctly, the engine does pretty much what Continental said it would, and the plane is indeed faster than Skyhawks of the day, and, with its slightly beefier fuselage, it carries more load.

Today, with 180-hp direct-drive engines prevalent, the geared engine is obsolete, though many of them are still flying in 175s through the sheer force of economic necessity.

You can still find great 175 values, as they aren’t highly prized by flight school owners, who want slightly less old Skyhawks with their well-known engines. 

For that price, you get a good airplane, though one that has engine costs lurking and that isn’t cheap to maintain, as is the case with most machines that are 60 years old.

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For three decades, Daniel Haligoin and Montaine Mallet, a husband and wife airshow team, wowed crowds as “The French Connection,” performing an almost impossibly tight formation routine that was as much ballet as aerobatics. Their mount, the CAP 10B, became an icon of the show circuit, and even the most seasoned of aviators would stop to watch their snap rolls on takeoff.

Powered by an AEIO-360 engine, the CAP 10B was far from the fire-breathing monsters that headline airshows today. And even though they were made of wood, the airplanes weren’t feather-light, either. These airplanes put on a spectacular show through careful energy management—a balance of kinetic and dynamic energy. Speeds and G-limits are largely unremarkable by modern standards, but few pilots who have flown one will speak ill of the design. Instead, expect a smile and a gleam in their eye as anyone who’s been at the controls tells you of the fun they had dancing about the heavens in this specimen of a flying machine. The CAP 10 was derived from the Piel Super Emeraude homebuilt, and it continued to be refined into later designs of single-seat aerobatic aircraft, culminating with the CAP 230 series.

Avions-Mudry CAP 10B

Crew: 2

Height: 8 ft 4 in

Wing Span: 26 ft 5 in

Length: 23 ft 6 in

Wing Area: 116.8 sq ft

Maximum Takeoff Weight: 1,676 lb

Empty Weight: 1,190 lb

Fuel Capacity: 19 U.S. gal

Propellers: 2-bladed Hoffmann fixed pitch wooden propeller

Range: 750 miles

Service Ceiling: 16,000 ft

G-Limits: +6 -4.5

Rate Of Climb: 1,200 ft/min max at sea level

Maximum Speed: 148 kts

Cruise Speed: 139 kts

Stall Speed: 54 kts clean; 46 kts dirty

Never Exceed Speed: 182 kts

Powerplant: 1 × Lycoming AEIO-360-B2F, 180 hp

Want more interesting planes? Here are Cool Planes That Never Made The Cut.

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Notwithstanding its name, the 1950s Beech Twin Bonanza had nothing in common with a Bonanza other than the planform of its outer wing panels. Original seating was Buick-like, three across in front and back, boarded by climbing retractable stairs onto the wing and stepping down through a side door. From the cockpit, it’s easy to see the T-Bone foundation of the King Air. Unless it is converted, you’ll have to accommodate the needs of the geared Lycoming engines that powered all Twin Bonanzas.

Over the years, much has been made of the Beech Twins’ out-of-order power quadrant and gear/flaps arrangement. It all began with the 1937 Model 18 Twin Beech; Walter Beech simply copied the layout of contemporary airliners, which had the throttles in the middle, with props on the left and mixtures on the right, so two pilots had equal access to the go-levers. The gear switch was to the right of the quadrant because it was a co-pilot’s job to move it. The 1952 Model 50 Twin Bonanza simply followed suit, and so did the Travel Air and Baron that came later. You just learn to deal with it.

By the late 1950s, it was obvious that a Twin Bonanza had become too much airplane for many step-up buyers, so a true Twin Bonanza was needed. In 1958, Beech introduced the Model 95, first called the “Badger” but quickly renamed “Travel Air.” To develop it, the  Bonanza wing was widened slightly, 180-hp Lycoming engines were mounted on each side, and a big conventional tail from the T-34 military trainer was fitted, leaving the Bonanza’s four-seat fuselage essentially intact. With its center-mounted throw-over control column, the instrument panel had to be expanded vertically to accommodate the power levers and extra gauges, with an enlarged fuel selector adjacent to the pilots’ knees.

Down the street in Wichita, Cessna had been selling a bunch of its model 310 twins, which featured six-cylinder Continental powerplants, so in 1961, Beech strapped a larger and swept vertical fin onto the Travel Air, mounted 260-hp Continental IO-470s, and created the Model 55 Baron. Ostensibly seating six by shifting baggage into the nose, the Baron was still a Bonanza at heart, but it gave Beech a competitor and was a joy to fly with its increased power. When the Bonanza 36 came along with side doors and six seats in 1968, it was logical to expand the Baron similarly into the 1970 Baron 58, which is still being built. Along the way, Barons have acquired available turbocharging and pressurization, an updated instrument panel arrangement and 300-hp engines. My favorite Baron is still the B55.

With the Travel Air out of production since 1968, Beech Aircraft needed a lighter twin than the burly Baron. The solution was the Duchess, a twin-engine conversion of the Sierra light retractable. The new tee-tailed four-seater with doors on both sides debuted in 1978. Using counter-rotating 180-hp O-360 Lycomings, it did a great job as a trainer and personal runabout, lasting for five years and 437 units of production before Beech ceased production in 1983.

Beyond the Barons, Beech added the pressurized Duke to its line in 1968. It might be considered more of a “heavy light twin” due to its weight and complexity. Purpose-built as an ultimate personal transport for the Beechcraft buyer who was ready for more but maybe not ready for a King Air, it offered airliner amenities and remains highly sought after.

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Moreover, the SR22 represents a conceptual departure from previous fast GA planes. For starters, the SR22 was and is a fixed-gear plane, a design decision arrived at in order to decrease complexity, make the plane cheaper to insure, and allow new pilots an easier journey upstream to a faster ride. It’s also an all-composite design, which represents a commitment to that material at a level not previously seen in light GA (though it was not the first such plane—the Windecker Eagle predated it by three decades, in fact). The Cirrus SR-series aircraft also featured (and feature today) a standard whole- airplane recovery-parachute system, which was a first for a production aircraft. The “chute,” as it’s nearly universally referred to these days, allows the pilot (or a passenger in case of pilot incapacitation) to pull a handle that activates a rocket-propelled parachute that lowers the entire aircraft to the ground at a survivably slow rate of descent. The chute, along with the company’s commitment to initial and ongoing flight training for its pilots, has contributed to an enviable safety record after a spotty one early on.

Other revolutionary design features included flat-panel avionics, though that technology wasn’t quite ready in time for the first SRs, which were equipped with mechanical gauges for the pilot and a center-mounted multifunction display. Within a couple of years, all SR20s and SR22s would feature full glass panels. And while it’s not a very advanced design in terms of its engineering, the SRs also boast a side-stick-esque control stick, which Cirrus refers to correctly as a “side yoke” because its function is exactly like that of a control yoke, in that it has push-pull action coupled with side-to-side control input.

In terms of performance, the Cirrus SR22 is without question a high-performance aircraft. In fact, turbo-charged models can cruise at its ceiling of 25,000 feet at 214 knots, though, in truth, precious few pilots fly at that altitude, instead contenting themselves with a predictable 200-knot cruise in the mid-teens with range of around 900 nm. Cirrus has built more than 8,000 SR-series singles as of early 2021.

One could argue that with the SR22, light plane manufacturers have reached the end game on the high-performance piston single, though others would argue that there’s still performance to be eked out of the type, as evidenced by Mooney’s remarkably swift Acclaim model. At the same time it’s tempting to say that in terms of development, the piston engine has reached its expiration date. One could argue, in fact, that Cirrus already built the ultimate next-Gen single, the SF-50 Vision Jet, a turbofan single that pushes the speed limit up over 310 knots and incorporates creature comforts and user-friendliness unimaginable for the visionary engineers who dreamt up that first true modern high-performance plane, the Beechcraft Bonanza, though we’re far from certain about what the future will bring. An all-electric 300-knot silent speedster? There are speedy electric planes on drawing boards, but the physics don’t work, at least not yet. Similar, revolutionary airplanes have happened before, though.

Evolution of the World’s Largest Engines

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Valuable flying lesson learned: Pilot Experiences Engine Failure on Family Vacation

Going Direct:  The Future of The Light GA and The Four-Seat Family Plane

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After visionary aircraft designer Ted Smith originated the Aero Commander, he went on to create the Aerostar twin line. He envisioned Aerostar models from a single to a jet, all based on his mid-wing speedster. First appearing in 1969 as the Aerostar 600 and turbocharged 601, the airplanes went through multiple ownerships over 15 years of production, including Mooney and Piper. 

If you want to fly fast and high, an Aerostar is probably the ultimate answer to your needs. The most popular models, the 601P, 602P and 700P, are pressurized to take advantage of the design’s potential. It’s a stout, well-built airframe, seating six and using the Lycoming IO-540 series of a nominal 290-hp (the 700P had 350-hp engines). Capable of 260 knots (300 mph) up high, an Aerostar easily tops 220 knots at medium altitudes. 

After Piper Aircraft ended Aerostar production in 1984, parts and technical support shifted to Aerostar Aircraft in Idaho, and there is an active owner’s group to share experiences. Maintenance requires specific knowledge and familiarity with the design, as Aerostars are compact and crowded to work on. 

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Ted Smith’s impressive Aero Commander, built in Bethany, Oklahoma, by Aero Design & Engineering and subsequently by Rockwell International, was a true executive-twin design, with a cockpit set up like an airliner’s—control columns sprouting from the floor, an aft entrance door, engines and props following behind the front office. Easy to board and a dream to fly (once you learn to taxi with the power steering), it’s a pilot’s airplane. 

The Commanders had no earlier company history of single-engine design, so they were a fresh departure, incorporating a light-bomber ramp presence. The fuel supply and baggage hold were located where a bomb bay would have been. The high wing and huge tail made for stable cruising, but the overhanging engines and wing darkened the five-seat aft cabin. Wing spar Ads were an issue, but most have been fixed long ago. Look for a later one with direct-drive Lycoming engines, like the 500B, U and S models built in the 1960s and ’70s. Twin Commander Corporation and its affiliates support the piston and turboprop Commanders.

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