Cessna was about to close their doors when the windfall of WWII came along and they answered the call to build a twin trainer.
The name Bobcat was selected in a contest run by Cessna in their factory while in Army service it got the nickname "Bamboo Bomber" for its wooden construction. Cessna built a total of 5,399 aircraft of the type for civil and military use.
The Cessna Bobcat T-50 was a 5 seat twin-engine aircraft intended as a commercial transport and produced by Cessna Company in 1939. It is regarded as one of the prettiest American aircraft of the early 40s and is the American parallel to the British Oxford and Anson, in many cases also used with a crew of four for radio training.
It has a fuselage made of a fabric and wood covered steel tube with a tail-wheel and a retractable gear fitted to a plywood covered wooden wings and fabric covered wooden tail surfaces. It was soon discovered in both USA and Canada that the T-50 had the qualities as a twin-engine type that can be adopted as a conversion trainer and soon ordered into service as Crane Mk1 and AT-8 with delivery reaching a total of 673 of the two types. 550 machines were passed to Canada designated as Crane Mk1A to serve as multi engine trainers. Also the USAAC showed interest in 33 machines marked AT-8. The USAAF soon ordered 1330 AT-17 and sub variants, these being powered by Jacobs R-775-9 engines. Bobcats began to be used near-battle line transport. The T-50 as was by then more commonly known served in transport role with the USAAF with the new Bobcat designation C-78. In January 1943 these were designated UC-78 and these only differed internally. 67 were also delivered to the US Navy referred to as JRC-1. A total of 5360 Bobcats were built of all types and sub variants with varied equipment.
The Cessna T-50 Bobcat/Crane Mk1 had a wingspan of 41’11”, a length of 32’9” and a height of 9’11”. It weighed 5,000lbs when fully loaded and 3,500 unloaded. The AT-8 version was slightly faster than the AT17 at a maximum of 200 MPH. The aircraft carried no armament.