The Cessna 414 is an American light, pressurized, twin-engine transport aircraft built by

Cessna Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing c ...

. It first flew in 1968 and an improved variant was introduced from 1978 as the 414A Chancellor.

Design and development

The pressurized 414 was developed to appeal to owners of unpressurized, twin-engined aircraft, and was based on the fuselage of the

Cessna 421 The Cessna 421 Golden Eagle is an American six or seven seat twin-engined light transport aircraft, developed in the 1960s by Cessna as a pressurized version of the earlier Cessna 411. Development The Cessna 421 was first produced in May 196 ...

and used the wing design of the

Cessna 401 Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing c ...

. The 414 is a low-wing cantilever

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

with a conventional tail unit and a retractable

tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle g ...

. It is powered by two wing-mounted 310 hp (231 kW) Continental TSIO-520-J horizontally opposed, six-cylinder engines. The prototype, registered N7170C, first flew on 1 November 1968, and production aircraft were available in a number of optional seating arrangements and avionics packages. The name Chancellor was used for models marketed from 1976. An improved variant the Cessna 414A Chancellor was introduced in 1978 with the major change being a redesigned and increased-span wing with integral fuel tanks and an extended nose to give more baggage space.

Modifications

Many supplemental type certificates exist for the aircraft that allow upgrades to improve performance. Common are engine and aerodynamic modifications, including

winglets Wingtip devices are intended to improve the efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft by reducing drag. Although there are several types of wing tip devices which function in different manners, their intended effect is always to reduce an aircraft' ...

. In 1974,

American Jet Industries Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation is an American aircraft company and a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics. Gulfstream designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and services business jet aircraft. Gulfstream has produced more than 2,000 ...

built a turboprop-powered conversion of the Cessna 414, named the Turbo Star Pressurized 414, using Allison 250-B17B engines.''Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1977–78'', p.398

Scenic Airlines Scenic may refer to: * Scenic design * Scenic painting * Scenic overlook * Scenic railroad (disambiguation) * Scenic route * Scenic, South Dakota, United States * Scenic (horse), a Thoroughbred racehorse Aviation *Airwave Scenic, an Austrian p ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

purchased the rights to the design in 1977.Taylor 1989, 793

Thielert Technify Motors GmbH is an aircraft Diesel engine manufacturer based in Sankt Egidien, Germany. In July 2013, Chinese state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) acquired the aircraft Diesel engine designs and manufacturing assets ...

has offered engine conversions using their

Centurion Engines The Thielert Centurion is a series of Diesel cycle aircraft engines for general aviation originally built by Thielert, which was bought by Aviation Industry Corporation of China's Tecnify Motors subsidiary and is currently marketed by Contin ...

. This involves the installation of FADEC-controlled aviation

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

piston engines that run on commonly available

jet fuel Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial a ...

. Thielert claims increased power and improved fuel economy over other available conventional piston engines.

Variants

;414 :Initial production variant, 516 built ;414A Chancellor :Improved 414 with narrower vertical tail, longer span bonded wet wing without tip tanks, a lengthened nose, redesigned landing gear, and powered by two 310 hp (231kW) TSIO-520-N engines, 554 built. ;Riley Rocket 414 :Conversion of Cessna 414 aircraft by fitting two 400 hp

Lycoming IO-720 The Lycoming IO-720 engine is a large displacement, horizontally opposed, eight-cylinder aircraft engine featuring four cylinders per side, manufactured by Lycoming Engines. There is no carburated version of the engine, which would have been d ...

enginesTaylor 1982, pp. 454–455.

Operators

Military operators

;: ;:

Accidents and incidents

*American gospel singer

Keith Green Keith Gordon Green (October 21, 1953 – July 28, 1982) was an American pianist, singer, and songwriter in the contemporary Christian music genre, who was originally from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. His most notable songs are " There ...

and 11 other people were killed on July 28, 1982, in a Cessna 414 shortly after takeoff at the private Garden Valley Airport, near

Garden Valley, Texas Garden Valley is a crossroads community in Smith County about 7 miles west of Lindale, Texas. It is 79 miles east of Dallas. Historically, prior to the formation of nearby town of Van (6 miles west of Garden Valley) in the late 1920s, when oil ...

. The

NTSB The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...

report indicates that the probable cause of the crash was a combination of the aircraft being overloaded (the occupants were four adults and eight children, while the aircraft has only seven seats) and pilot's failure to calculate weight and balance relative to the aircraft's design parameters.

Specifications (414A Chancellor)

References

External links

Cessna 421 & 414 photo
{{Cessna 414 1960s United States business aircraft Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1968 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft