The Cessna 188 is a family of light agricultural aircraft produced between 1966 and 1983 by the Cessna Aircraft Company. The various versions of the 188: AGwagon, AGpickup, AGtruck and AGhusky, along with the AGcarryall variant of the 185, constituted Cessna's line of agricultural aircraft.
Development
In the early 1960s Cessna decided to expand their already wide line of light aircraft by entering the agricultural aircraft market. They surveyed pilots and operators of other brands of agricultural aircraft to see what features and capabilities these operators were looking for. The resulting aircraft was a conventional single-seat, piston-engined, strut-braced low-wing agricultural airplane. The Cessna 188 borrowed heavily from the Cessna 180, the initial version using the same tail cone and fin structure as well as the same Continental O-470-R 230 hp powerplant. The 188's airframe is predominantly built from 2024-T3 aluminum, with the chemical hopper constructed from fibreglass. The fuselage is of semi-monocoque construction and is lightly pressurized on later models to reduce induction of chemicals into the airframe. The Cessna 188 was first flown on 19 February 1965. The aircraft was certified and entered production in February 1966, with 241 aircraft delivered the first year. The initial design of the Cessna 188 was so successful that over its 17-year production run the basic airframe remained unchanged. Only the engines and the agricultural products dispensing systems were upgraded, other than some minor changes to the ventilation systems. The main use for the Cessna 188 series was for agricultural purposes, but many examples were later acquired for use as glider and sailplane tugs. A total of 3976 Cessna 188s of all four variants were built during its production run, made up of 53 AGpickups, 1589 AGwagons, 1949 AGtrucks and 385 AGhuskies.
Variants
;188 AGwagon 230 as a sailplane tug ;188A AGwagon "A" ;188A AGwagon "B" , 1979 ;188B AGpickup ;A188 AGwagon 300 ;A188A AGwagon "A" ;A188A AGwagon "B" , May 1988 ;A188B, AGwagon "C" and AGtruck ;T188C AGhusky
