Cessna 310

The Cessna 310 is an American four-to-six-seat, low-wing, twin-engine monoplane produced by Cessna between 1954 and 1980. It was the second twin-engine aircraft that Cessna put into production; the first was the Cessna T-50. It was used by the U.S. military as the L-27, after 1962, U-3. Over six thousand Cessna 310 and 320 aircraft were produced between 1954 and 1980.

Development

The 310 first flew on January 3, 1953, with deliveries starting in late 1954. The sleek modern lines of the new twin were backed up by innovative features such as engine exhaust thrust augmenter tubes and the storage of all fuel in tip tanks in early models. In 1964, the engine exhaust was changed to flow under the wing instead of the augmenter tubes, which were considered to be noisy.
Typical of Cessna model naming conventions, a letter was added after the model number to identify changes to the original design over the years. The first significant upgrade to the 310 series was the 310C in 1959, which introduced more powerful Continental IO-470-D engines. In 1960 the 310D featured swept-back vertical tail surfaces. An extra cabin window was added with the 310F.
File:CessnaU3A582107atPima.JPG|thumb|An ex-USAF U-3A on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona
The turbocharged 320 Skyknight was developed from the 310F. Equipped with TSIO-470-B engines and featuring an extra cabin window on each side, it was in production between 1961 and 1969, when it was replaced by the similar Turbo 310.
The 310G was certified in 1961 and introduced the canted wingtip fuel tanks found on the majority of the Cessna twin-engine product line, marketed as "stabila-tip" tanks by Cessna, because they were meant to aid stability in flight. A single side window replaced the rear two windows on the 310K, with optional three-blade propellers being introduced as well. Subsequent developments included the 310Q and turbocharged T310Q with a redesigned rear cabin featuring a skylight window, and the final 310R and T310R, identifiable by a lengthened nose containing a baggage compartment. Production ended in 1980.
Over the years there were several modifications to the 310 to improve performance. Aircraft engineer Jack Riley produced two variants, The Riley Rocket 310 and the Riley Turbostream 310. Riley replaced the standard Continental engines with Lycoming TIO-540 engines. These turbocharged intercooled engines were installed with three-blade Hartzell propellers in a counter-rotating configuration to further increase performance and single-engine safety. At gross weight the aircraft had a weight to power ratio of per horsepower. This resulted in a cruising speed of at and a rate of climb.

Operational history

Commercial applications

The Cessna 310 was a common charter aircraft for the many air taxi firms that sprang up in the general aviation boom that followed World War II. The advantages of the Cessna 310 over its contemporaries, such as the Piper PA-23, were its speed, operating costs and aftermarket modifications, such as the Robertson STOL kits that made it popular worldwide for its bush flying characteristics. It could use short runways, while at the same time carrying a large useful load of. or more, at speeds that were high for a twin engine piston aircraft.

Military applications

In 1957, the United States Air Force selected the Cessna 310 for service as a light utility aircraft for transport and administrative support. The USAF purchased 160 unmodified 310A aircraft with the designation L-27A and unofficially nicknamed Blue Canoe, later changed to U-3A in 1962. An additional 36 upgraded 310 designated L-27B were delivered in 1960–61; these aircraft were essentially military 310Fs and as such equipped with the more powerful engines and can be identified by their extra cabin windows, longer nose and swept vertical fin. A USAF study after one year of operational service found the U-3A had direct operating costs of less than $12 an hour. The U-3 saw active service in a support role when the USAF deployed aircraft to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, where they were used on courier flights between air bases. Some USAF aircraft were later transferred to the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy and the type continued in United States military service into the mid-1970s.

Notable private flights

On December 19, 1992, Cuban defector Major Orestes Lorenzo Pérez returned to Cuba in a 1961 Cessna 310 to retrieve his wife and two sons. Flying without lights, at low speed and very low altitude to avoid Cuban radar, Pérez picked up his family by landing on the coastal highway of Varadero beach, Matanzas Province, east of Havana and managed a successful safe return to Marathon, Florida.

Variants

;310
;310A
;310B
;310C
;310D
;310E
;310F
;310G
;310H
;E310H
;310I
;310J
;310J-1
;E310J
;310K
;310L
;310M
;310N
;T310Q
;T310R
;310S
;320 Skyknight
;320A Skyknight
;320B Skyknight
;320C Skyknight
;320D Executive Skyknight
;320E Executive Skyknight
;320F Executive Skyknight
;L-27A
;L-27B
;U-3A
;U-3B
;Colemill Executive 600
;Riley 65
; Riley Super 310
;Riley Turbostream
; Riley Rocket
; Riley Turbo-Rocket

Operators

Civil

The aircraft is popular with air charter companies and small feeder airlines, and is operated by private individuals and companies.

Military operators

Countries known to have operated the U-3/310 include.
;Argentina

Argentine Air Force — Cessna 310 and 320 models

;Bolivia
;Colombia

Colombian Air Force

;Republic of the Congo
;France

French Air and Space Force — 12 operated

;Haiti

Haiti Air Corps

;Indonesia

Indonesian Air Force
Indonesian Army Aviation

;Iran
;Madagascar

Air Force of Madagascar — One 310R

;Mexico

Mexican Naval Aviation

;Paraguay

Paraguayan Air Force

;Peru

Peruvian Navy

;Philippines

Philippine Air Force

;Saudi Arabia
;Suriname

Suriname Air Force

;Tanzania

Tanzanian Air Force

;United States

United States Air Force received 196 L-27A and L-27B.
United States Army received 25 ex-US Air Force L-27As and at least 13 L-27Bs from 1960.

;Uruguay

Uruguayan Air Force

;Venezuela

Venezuelan Navy

;Zaire

Zaire Air Force
Accidents and incidents
On October 28, 1959, a Cessna 310 carrying Cuban revolutionary Camilo Cienfuegos disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean on a night flight from Camagüey to Havana. Neither the aircraft nor the body of Cienfuegos were ever found.
On November 26, 1962, a Saab Scandia 90A-1, aircraft registration PP-SRA of VASP on a scheduled domestic service in Brazil from São Paulo-Congonhas to Rio de Janeiro-Santos Dumont collided in the air over Paraibuna, São Paulo, with a private Cessna 310 PT-BRQ en route from Rio de Janeiro-Santos Dumont to São Paulo-Campo de Marte. Both were flying on the same airway in opposite directions and failed to have visual contact. The two aircraft crashed killing all 23 passengers and crew of the Saab and the four occupants of the Cessna.
On July 19, 1967, a Boeing 727 operating as Piedmont Airlines Flight 22 collided with a Cessna 310 near Hendersonville, North Carolina, killing all 79 people on board the Boeing 727 and the three people in the Cessna.
On October 16, 1972, US Congressmen Nick Begich of Alaska, and Hale Boggs of Louisiana, disappeared over Alaska while flying in a 310C during a campaign trip.
On October 4, 1975, a chartered 310Q crashed on final approach to New Hanover County Airport while transporting wrestlers Bob Bruggers, Ric Flair, Johnny Valentine and Tim Woods and promoter David Crockett to a professional wrestling match in nearby Wilmington, North Carolina. Bruggers and Flair were seriously injured, while Valentine was paralyzed and the pilot subsequently died of his injuries. The aircraft was overloaded and its center of gravity was beyond the aft limit; attempting to mitigate these problems, the pilot drained fuel before the flight, causing fuel exhaustion before the aircraft reached the runway.
On September 11, 1981, a T310P crashed into an upper wall of the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino, California, killing both aircraft occupants; the crash and a major ensuing fire caused severe damage to the building's roof, structural members, insulation, and about a third of the bleachers. The building was ultimately deemed beyond repair and was razed seven months later.
On June 29, 1989, concert organist Keith Chapman and his wife were killed when their 310Q piloted by Chapman crashed into the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of the Colorado Rockies while they were returning from a performance in California.

, the US National Transportation Safety Board has recorded 1,787 incidents for Cessna 310s since 12 January 1964. Of these, 436 were fatal.

Aircraft on display

U-3A "Blue Canoe" 58-2124 is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The aircraft is one of several transferred from the USAF to the U.S. Army, and was flown to the museum in September 1984.
310 N6775X, a 1955 model formerly flown by actor Jimmy Stewart, has been restored and placed as a gate guardian at Indiana County-Jimmy Stewart Airport in Indiana, Pennsylvania. The aircraft is mounted on a pedestal to act as a weather vane, and its propellers rotate with the wind.
Specifications (1956 model 310)