The International Cessna 170 Association

Just wondering if anyone knows why the papers say it was made in 50?

What paper? FAA registration? The FAA will assign the year the aircraft was first registered as the year of manufacture if no one corrects it. So often airplanes made in one model year that where not sold till the next year often have the wrong manufacture year on the registration. If an airplane was sold and exported by the factory outside the US and then imported back into the US, the year it was imported is often found as the year of manufacturer.

There are simply lots of mistakes found in the registration cause no one is checking or correcting it. Remember until recently airplanes registration was only changed when the plane changed hands, not every 3 years. My first 170 at one time or another was registered as a 170, a 170B and then a 170A which is what it was according to it's serial number.

Your '48 was not manufactured in '50.

(Reviving an older thread which was originally posted/hidden in the Mx Library)

I’ll add to Bruce’s comments that an airplane exported direct from the factory may have initially been in a foreign registry. When imported back to the U.S. it may receive it’s First FAA Airworthiness certificate…which is how FAA used to determine year of mfr. (This happened to my SN: 25713 mfr’d in Nov. ‘52 but shipped to El Salvador. When it re-entered the U.S. in 1971 and rec’d it’s first U.S. airworthiness….it was registered as a 1971 Cessna 170B. I had to notify the FAA-Registration OKC of the error and they “corrected” it…. to the IN-correct info as a 1952 170B. (it’s actually a ‘53 model.)