Seeing Your Aircraft Through the Lens of Odd Mods

A Cessna 170 owner goes on a quest to find the most unusual FAA-approved modifications for his airplane. Here are the top five.

Jason McDowell

Wednesday, October 09, 2024 at 11:59 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Kimberly Johnson

FAA approved for Cessna models 170 through 182, ‘Wings with Springs’ promised a smoother ride in turbulence. [Courtesy: Wings with Springs]

Key Takeaways:

Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs) enable extensive customization of aircraft, with popular models often having hundreds of approved modifications.
The author explored unusual STCs for the Cessna 170B, uncovering an aesthetically awkward tricycle-gear conversion and an impractical aftermarket windshield wiper.
Other peculiar STCs featured include an expensive medevac stretcher, a 1990s-era aircraft burglar alarm system, and a complex "Wings with Springs" wing suspension designed for gust alleviation.
These diverse and often strange modifications highlight past creative efforts in aviation, many of which proved commercially unviable, aesthetically unappealing, or added unnecessary complexity.

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As any airplane owner quickly learns, most types can be modified to some extent through STCs, or supplemental type certificates. From higher-quality sun visors to additional fuel tanks to entirely different engines, an owner can customize their airplane to their liking—provided someone designed that modification, tested it thoroughly, and got it approved by the FAA.

Predictably, less common aircraft types tend to have fewer STCs to choose from. More popular types, however, might have several hundred that have been developed and offered over the years, particularly if the type was produced for a long period of time.