Cessna Model 620

[Sentinel Chicken]

The Cessna 620:

Model 620-Despite Beech's lack of success in finding a market for a four-engine transport nine years earlier, Cessna announced its Model 620 in 1956. It was an eight to ten-place pressurized aircraft powered by four 320 hp Continental GSO-526-As. Priced in the $300,000-$400,000 range, it would cost more than new twin-engine Martin and Convair airliners.

Planned for introduction as a 1958 model, design began in September 1953. Even though work on the Model 310 twin was underway, very little structure could be found to share with the larger airframe; virtually every piece on the four-engine airplane was new. It took nearly three years of prototype construction before the first flight was made.

Its stand-up cabin was six feet high and air conditioned, and the 620 had an on-board APU. Fuel capacity was over 400 gallons (part of which was carried in the distinctive tip tanks which would be a Cessna trademark for decades), gross weight was 13,650 lbs, it had a 55-ft wing span, maximum speed of 282 mph and 27,500 ft service ceiling--22,500 ft on three engines.

It apparently wasn't until after flight testing began that the company started its market research, and it was then that they discovered much the same which Beech had found earlier--that most potential customers had a ready supply of larger, pressurized airliners available for far less than the proposed model. With a total of fifty hours on the only prototype, it was sold to a Wichita scrap metal dealer. Some of the 620's design lessons, however, would be used in later twin-engine models.

 

[elmayerle]

I once worked with some folk who worked on the 620, general consensus was that it was a touch too early. A little later and they'd have caught the first wave of practical small turboprops and could've had a strong competitor to the King Air/Super King Air.

I've seen the 327 airframe when it was being converted to a test article for NASA Langley, it resembles a cross between a scaled-down 337 and a Cardianl RG. It was an attractive aricraft as far as I saw. I think it's main short-fall was that the price they could sell reasonably well at was somewhat less than what it cost to build t hem.

Evan

 

[Stargazer]

Cessna 620 original brochure:

 

[Stargazer]

Cessna 620...

• "Descriptive Data-2"
• three-view arrangement

 

[Stargazer]

Several articles about the Cessna 620 (click on images to enlarge):

From the Cessna book An Eye to the Sky (1962):



From The Cessquire, 24 August 1956:



From Flying, October 1956:



From Air Pictorial, October 1956:



From Roskam's Airplane War Stories, by Jan Roskam:

 

[Edubarca]

I am in the need of a nice three view plan of the Cessna 620, Anybody out there can help me? Thanks My email is [email protected]

 

[Stargazer]

I am in the need of a nice three view plan of the Cessna 620, Anybody out there can help me? Thanks My email is [email protected]

Isn't the one in post #4 a good place to start?

 

[samardza]

Several articles about the Cessna 620 (click on images to enlarge):

From the Cessna book An Eye to the Sky (1962):

View attachment 774301

From The Cessquire, 24 August 1956:

View attachment 774308

From Flying, October 1956:

View attachment 774302

From Air Pictorial, October 1956:

View attachment 774303

From Roskam's Airplane War Stories, by Jan Roskam:

View attachment 774304

At 149 sold it looks like the DH Heron from 1950 may have been the most successful small quad