The Cessna 140 is a two-seat single engined high wing light utility aircraft. The aircraft features fabric
covered wings with a metal fuselage and metal control surfaces. During WWII Cessna Aircraft Company was
busy with the production of aircraft, gliders and parts for the USAAF and Canada. By this means the company created a manufacturing
organisation which was well placed to meet the demand of postwar General Aviation. When peace came, Cessna Aircraft Company set its
sights on the low-priced personal aircraft market. Many wartime pilots wanted to continue flying their own aircraft and many
ex-servicemen saw flying training as the entry to a new career. The first of the post-war Cessnas to be built in volume was the
Cessna 140, followed a month later by a stripped-down model called the 120. Model 140 was an all-metal 2 seat trainer with tailwheel
undercarriage; two wing struts; flaps and extra side window; Model 120, was a stripped-down version of Model 140 with side-by-side seating,
yokes rather than sticks, no flaps and no rear window. Both the 120 and 140 had Continental C-85-12 engines. At the time, the
Cessna 120/140s were perfectly serviceable and practical two-place airplanes. They were reasonably priced to buy and economical to own.
Although they all initially had fabric wings, they were made mostly of metal, avoiding the periodic need for recovering. The postwar boom
ran out and sales dropped annually. In 1949, Model 140A was introduced. The Cessna 140A had an entirely new C170 style tapered wing design
with a single wing strut. The strut replaced the two-piece struts of its predecessors, with a single attach point at the fuselage and two
attach points under the wings. Model 140A also had the option of a C-85-12F or C-90 engine. Despite the introduction of Models like the 140A,
Cessna ran into troubles but managed to survive because of its size and resources and through a period of manufacturing office furniture,
domestic goods and anything else it could find next to the too small amount of aircraft to keep its factories in production. It took until
the mid-1950s before Cessna started with the development of the Model 142 as successor to the Cessna 140. Model 142,
a tricycle-geared two place trainer, was based on the tail-wheel Model 140. After the Cessna 142 N34258 was flown first in September 1957,
the Model 142 was renamed Model 150. The Cessna 140 was in production from 1946 until 1951 with a total of 5430 Model 140 built, including
525 140A airplanes that were built from 1949 until 1951; the Cessna 120 was produced from June 1946 through May 1949 with 2171 Model 120 built.
The ICAO Aircraft Type Designator for the Cessna 140 is C140
The 1946-built Cessna 140 s/n 10293 was registered N73077 in the USA. In that year often NC instead of N was used.
On 15 March 1956, the certificate of airworthiness for the N73077 was issued. On 21 July 1992, Larry V. Winn, was
registered as owner of Cessna 140 N73077. With this owner, the aircraft was based first in Webster, Minnesota, and
since 2013 in Tucson, Arizona. In 2018, the airframe was sold and on 29 November 2018 registered with Egmond Aircraft LLC,
Lewis, Delaware, the American branch of ATN Aircraft Division at Hoogeveen airfield, Netherlands. The airframe was shipped to
Hoogeveen airfield and entered service in Europe. On 11 July 2020, Cessna 140 N73077 was heavily damaged when the wing touched
the ground on landing at Hamburg. The airframe was shipped to ATN Aircraft Division at Hoogeveen airfield and rebuilt. Today,
Cessna 140 N73077 is based in Germany. On 22 February 2025, Cessna 140 NC73077 was seen at Hoogeveen airfield (EHHO) shortly
after the aircraft was delivered from Essen-Mülheim for maintenance by EVW Maintenance.
