Cessna 172
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40 free Cessna 172 trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
More Cessna 172s have been built than any other aircraft, and the type has been a mainstay of flight schools since the 1950s. It is a simple four-seater with one piston engine, yet its story takes in Cold War headlines, an endurance record and a production line that stopped for ten years and then started again. This quiz covers the whole story: where the design came from and how it changed from one model year to the next, the engine, propeller, instruments and controls that student pilots have to know, the military and government operators, the people and companies behind the plane, and the flights, good and bad, that put it in the news. It is written for student pilots, flight-sim fans and anyone who has looked up at a small plane and wondered what it was. You do not need a licence to do well, and every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Beside which Moscow landmark did West German teenager Mathias Rust land a rented Cessna 172 in May 1987?
Red Square
Red Square was his target, but crowds forced Rust onto a bridge beside it, where passers-by asked for autographs. He was arrested two hours later.
Q 02How did the two pilots of a Cessna 172 take on fuel during their record 64-day flight in 1958–59?
From a speeding truck
From a speeding truck: flying low over a straight desert road, the crew winched up a hose and filled a tank in the plane's belly.
Q 03Which former heavyweight boxing champion died in 1969 when a Cessna 172 crashed short of an Iowa airfield?
Rocky Marciano
Rocky Marciano, who retired unbeaten after 49 professional fights, was a passenger bound for Des Moines when the plane hit a tree, the day before his 46th birthday.
Q 04Which Soviet leader used a teenager's 1987 Cessna 172 flight to Moscow as grounds to fire his defence minister?
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev dismissed Defence Minister Sergei Sokolov and hundreds of officers, clearing out opponents of his reforms after the plane slipped past Soviet air defences.
Q 05Why does the Cessna 172 line jump from the 172N straight to the 172P, with no 172O?
O could be mistaken for zero
O could be mistaken for zero, so Cessna never built a 172O. The 172P that followed in 1981 swapped out the 172N's engine, which had proven unreliable.
Q 06Glen de Vries died in a 2021 Cessna 172 crash weeks after flying to space with which company?
Blue Origin
Blue Origin carried de Vries on a suborbital flight alongside actor William Shatner in October 2021; the company added his initials to its next mission patch.
Q 07From which US city did a Cessna 172 take off in December 1958 and stay airborne for a record 64 days?
Las Vegas
Las Vegas was home to the Hacienda hotel, which sponsored the flight for publicity; the plane landed back at the same airfield in February 1959.
Q 08Where does a Cessna 172, like most small piston aircraft from the same maker, carry its wing?
Above the cabin
Above the cabin is the high-wing layout Cessna became best known for after World War II; rivals such as the Beechcraft Musketeer carried their wings low.
Q 09Which Kansas city, long nicknamed the Air Capital of the World, is home to the makers of the Cessna 172?
Wichita
Wichita is where Clyde Cessna started his company in 1927; with Beechcraft and Stearman also building aircraft there, the city earned its nickname.
Q 10Which name, first applied in 1961 to a deluxe trim package, does Cessna now use for every 172?
Skyhawk
Skyhawk began as an option bundle with full exterior paint, wheel fairings and avionics; from 1976 Cessna stopped marketing the aircraft by its number at all.
Q 11Over which California city did a Cessna 172 collide with a Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 in September 1978?
San Diego
San Diego suffered what remains the deadliest air disaster in California history: 144 people died, seven of them on the ground.
Q 12David Box, killed in a 1964 Cessna 172 crash in Texas, sang lead for which band once fronted by Buddy Holly?
The Crickets
The Crickets used Box as lead singer on their 1960 release of "Peggy Sue Got Married"; he became the band's second lead vocalist to die in a plane crash.
Q 13Ken Hubbs, a Rookie of the Year second baseman who died flying a Cessna 172 in 1964, played for which team?
Chicago Cubs
Q 21What did Cessna add to the tailwheel Model 170 in 1955 to create the first Cessna 172?
A nosewheel
A nosewheel replaced the tailwheel, a layout Cessna advertised as "Land-O-Matic"; the result was an overnight success, with more than 1,400 built in 1956.
Q 22Which French company built Cessna 172s under licence for European buyers, starting in the 1960s?
Reims Aviation
Reims Aviation grew out of a 1960 deal with Cessna and sold the aircraft as the F172, along with a more powerful version called the Rocket.
Q 23Under which military designation did the US Air Force adopt the Cessna 172 as a trainer for new pilots in the 1960s?
T-41 Mescalero
Chicago Cubs infielder Hubbs had taken flying lessons to conquer a fear of flying, and gained his licence only weeks before the crash on Utah Lake.
Q 14Which conglomerate has owned Cessna, maker of the 172, since buying it from General Dynamics in 1992?
Textron
Textron later bought Beechcraft and Hawker as well, and in 2014 folded all three brands into one aviation unit, ending Cessna's run as a separate company.
Q 15What led Cessna to halt production of the 172 in 1986, a pause that lasted ten years?
Rising liability costs
Rising liability costs pushed Cessna out of piston aircraft; its chairman promised to return if Congress changed the law, and the 172 came back in 1996.
Q 16Which engine maker took over from Continental on the Cessna 172I of 1968, adding five horsepower?
Lycoming
Lycoming supplied the 150-horsepower O-320, which lifted cruise speed by just one mile per hour; the standard 172 has used the company's engines ever since.
Q 17Clyde Cessna, whose company later built the Cessna 172, returned to which work in Kansas after leaving aviation?
Farming
Farming drew him back after he handed the company to his nephews Dwane and Dwight Wallace in the 1930s; as a boy he had improved farm machinery in rural Kansas.
Q 18Which Piper, certified in 1960 and later sold as the Warrior and Archer, is a longtime rival of the Cessna 172?
Cherokee
Cherokee is the family name of the PA-28, designed as a cheaper alternative to Piper's Comanche; more than 32,000 have been built.
Q 19Which control do pilots of older Cessna 172s use to melt ice that forms where fuel and air mix?
Carburetor heat
Carburetor heat routes hot air from around the exhaust into the intake, at the price of some engine power, because warm air is less dense.
Q 20The record 64-day Cessna 172 endurance flight of 1958–59 was promoted as a fundraiser against which disease?
Cancer
Cancer research was the named cause: the hotel owner who paid for the stunt declared it a fundraiser for the Damon Runyon fund.
T-41 Mescalero trainers were off-the-shelf 172s with few modifications, bought so that student pilots did not have to start out in a jet.
Q 24What did Cessna's Omni-Vision branding, which reached the 172 with the 1963 172D, describe?
A rear window
A rear window became possible once the fuselage behind the seats was cut down; every 172 since has kept the lowered deck.
Q 25Which glass cockpit system, built around two large display screens, has the Cessna 172S offered since the 2000s?
Garmin G1000
Garmin G1000 pairs a primary flight display with a multi-function display; launched in 2004, it became one of the most popular glass cockpits for private and business aircraft.
Q 26From which Nordic capital did Mathias Rust set off in a Cessna 172 on his 1987 flight into Soviet airspace?
Helsinki
Helsinki controllers were told he was heading for Stockholm; when he vanished from radar, Finnish rescuers searched the sea for wreckage.
Q 27The pneumatic horn fitted to the Cessna 172 from the 1967 model year sounds to warn the pilot of what?
An imminent stall
An imminent stall sets it off as the wing nears the point of losing lift; the 172H that introduced it also swapped the generator for an alternator.
Q 28On a Cessna 172R's airspeed indicator, what does the red line at 163 knots mark?
Never-exceed speed
Never-exceed speed, written VNE, tops a yellow band on the dial that pilots may enter only in smooth air; the 172R normally cruises at 122 knots.
Q 29How are the four cylinders arranged in the engine of a modern Cessna 172, giving it a wide, flat shape?
Horizontally opposed
Horizontally opposed cylinders lie in two banks on opposite sides of the crankshaft, which is why the design is also called a flat-four or boxer engine.
Q 30Which Soviet wartime attack plane ranks second to the Cessna 172 among the most-produced aircraft ever?
Ilyushin Il-2
Ilyushin Il-2 production reached 36,183 between 1941 and 1945, still the most of any military aircraft; the 172 has passed 44,000.