Air-to-Air Cessna 172 Silver Hawk

[Lowflynjack]

I met Bob at Oshkosh where he told me he had a 1981 Cessna 172 Skyhawk, or in this case, a Silver Hawk. I had never heard of this special edition before, but he explained it was the 25th anniversary edition of the 172, so Cessna made a few painted in silver. It's a good looking plane, with the original paint. There were times in the photo shoot where it was as blinding as a polished plane!

My girlfriend decorates our campsite at KOSH in Texas flags... banners, chairs, signs, etc. So when Bob walked up and said he was from Texas and asked what part of Texas I was from, of course I replied, "Who said I'm from Texas?" After a good laugh, I told him Austin and asked where he was from. He said a little town I wouldn't know of, Mineola. I laughed and told him to tell Lupita hello when he got back home! Aviation is a small world.

For the shoot, we met up in Mineola, where it was nice to see some color change in the trees. We don't get much of that in Austin!

Trust me... the plane is silver. The silver paint reflects that golden sun very well!

 

[Pugs]

That is sharp. I've never seen one.

 

[Lowflynjack]

That is sharp. I've never seen one.

This is the first one I'd seen!

 

[Lowflynjack]

Remember the joke about the gentlemen's magazines... I was reading the articles? Well, when I get aviation magazines, I rarely read the articles. I head straight to the photos!

In this case, I wanted to read the article. Very cool story about a one-off plane, the Silver Hawk!

 

[frfly172]

Very nice.

 

[camorton]

Dang, I thought I knew a thing or two about Cessna history but I learned something new today. I have never heard of this edition before. Wonder how many were made?

C.

 

[Lowflynjack]

Dang, I thought I knew a thing or two about Cessna history but I learned something new today. I have never heard of this edition before. Wonder how many were made?

C.

From what I read, it may be just one!

 

[camorton]

I know they were in the practice of putting a special badge on other anniversary models (I have one) and would do special N-numbers for milestone serials, but yeah I can't see them putting expensive (and probably heavy) metallic paint on every one for that model year. Maybe it was a special option for that year?