There’s no truth whatsoever to the assertion that the Cessna 182 has been around so long that the first model was open cockpit. The reality is that with its model 310 twin selling like crazy, Cessna realized that nosewheels meant good ground handling, fewer ground loops, and happy customers.
For the 1956 model year, the company applied the nosewheel concept to its tailwheel 180 and smaller sibling 170, creating the 182 and 172. Thus began a sales tour de force that continues to this day. Where the 172 became the most popular general aviation airplane in history, the more powerful and capable 182 became the big-engine, reliable, go-almost-anywhere, powerful climbing, carry-almost-anything, good-handling, comfortable old boot that could be found nearly anywhere on the planet where there was space into which to shoehorn an airplane.
