Originally Posted by
Acrosport II
I wouldn't say that a 'seat track' fault on the c170a in 1951 killed Cessna or the C172. 43,000 C172 were built after that along with C170Bs.
I haven't read up on this incident, but perhaps that was the first big lawsuit that all the rest followed. Millions of $ as you stated, would be a considerable blow to Cessna back in the early 1950s.
I think that you misunderstood the post there. Supposedly, it was a 170 manufactured in 1951, not a lawsuit award that happened in 1951. I don't know when this was supposed to have happened, or if it actually did. I've never heard of a lawsuit involving the seat tracks of a 170, but it's possible. There was however, a very large judgement against Cessna for seat tracks in a 185 crash. It was a 1966 185, the accident was in 1989, and the award was in 2001. The award was 480 million USD.