One-forty allure

Cessna introduced the 140 in 1946 and advertised it as a modern and affordable trainer and an economical cross-country airplane for two occupants and a weekend’s worth of baggage. More than 7,600 of these aircraft were built between 1946 and 1951 in three distinct models—the Cessna 140, the budget-minded Cessna 120 with no flaps and optional electrical system and rear windows, and, beginning in 1949, the Cessna 140A with a metal wing and single wing struts. The design of these aircraft was so successful one can trace their evolution directly to today’s new production Cessna 172, 182, and 206. It is a testament to the airplane’s durability that after nearly 80 years, one-third of all Cessna 120/140s built are still FAA-registered, and many remain in flying condition.

AOPA Video Content Producer Michelle Walker and I both own Cessna 140s, so it’s little surprise we were eager to visit Poplar Grove Airport (C77) in Poplar Grove, Illinois, and meet Lorraine and Ken—both ATPs and CFIIs—who, since 1988, have been restoring Cessna 120s and 140s to as-new or better condition in their spare time. Lorraine is an airline captain and Ken, now a retired airline captain, continues to put his A&P/IA certificate to good use.

“The thing I like about the 120/140s is they do everything pretty good,” said Lorraine. “They don’t do anything great. They don’t do one thing fantastic. But you can do just about everything. You can go long distance. You can go hop around the pattern cheaply. You can take the door off and take pictures. They do a lot of things really well.”

“And they’re fun,” adds Ken. “They handle well. What I dislike about them is that over the years, they just keep getting smaller and I don’t fit in them like I used to. But I still enjoy flying them.”

“If somebody said you can only have one airplane, it would still be a 140,” said Lorraine. And that speaks volumes considering the Morris’ also own the 1962 Beechcraft Bonanza and the 1942 Beechcraft Model 18 (Twin Beech) tucked in their Poplar Grove hangar home.

Charlie

N5669C, a 1950 Cessna 140A nicknamed Charlie, is central to Ken and Lorraine’s story. The 140A became part of the family when Ken’s father, an American Airlines captain, was looking for an airplane in which Ken could learn to fly. While flying a Boeing 727 over his hometown airport in Springfield, Missouri, Ken’s father called the airport manager on unicom and said, “Hey, my kid’s about 13—about flying age.” The airport manager replied, “I just heard about a 140 for sale 10 minutes ago.” His dad said, “I’ll be down tomorrow,” and the next day he flew the airplane home.

Ken described the airplane as having an ugly beige base color paint with a black and fluorescent blue stripe and fluorescent orange wings and tail. Ken’s father quickly decided the airplane needed a new paint scheme. “He grabbed a seven ball off the pool table,” said Ken, “and he went to town in our brand-new ’68 Ford Country Square station wagon. It was a Wimbledon white, kind of an off-white color. He went into the paint shop, and he says, ‘I want that color white and this color red.’ It’s been those colors ever since.”

Charlie was a great investment: Ken soloed it on his sixteenth birthday, earned his private certificate in it at seventeen, and his commercial and CFI certificates in it when he was eighteen.

Meanwhile, Lorraine’s private pilot father offered to help her learn to fly between high school and college. Lorraine then attended the same college Ken had graduated from. Both flew on the flying team, but not at the same time. They finally met years later during a flying team reunion in 1987. “I hadn’t flown for five years at that point,” said Lorraine. “I was trying to figure out a way to get back into aviation. I called Ken up and asked if he would teach me to fly again.”

Within three months, Lorraine had learned to fly again, learned to fly tailwheel (there were no tailwheel endorsements in 1987), and earned her CFI certificate. She achieved all of this in Charlie. What’s more, one of Ken’s sons and two of his nephews also learned to fly in Charlie, and Ken took his practical for his A&P certificate by working on the airplane.

In 1988, a year after meeting, Ken and Lorraine were married.

First project

Charlie was the springboard that led to Lorraine and Ken’s first restoration project. “Originally we started by buying a collection of Cessna 140 parts knowing we were going to try to make an airplane out of it,” said Lorraine, “to quickly discover we were missing a lot of parts. We thought we knew all about it because we had one. We thought we can fix one up. Quickly learned we didn’t know all we thought we knew.”

They had to buy far more parts than anticipated to assemble a single airplane. “We were putting it together for the final phase at the airport and discovered we had two left flaps and two right jury struts,” said Lorraine.

“That’s after they were painted and ready to assemble,” said Ken. “That’s where the learning began. We couldn’t afford an engine or anything firewall forward to finish it. We stole one off of my own airplane.” They promptly sold their first restoration at Oshkosh to secure funds to buy another engine for Charlie. “It was a borrowing from Peter to pay Paul,” laughed Ken.

Becoming Cessna 140 experts

Charlie was Ken and Lorrain’s second project. “It had been in the family,” said Ken. “There were a lot of times that it should have been gone. There were a lot of lonely years it sat outside in the field. After we got married and had a place to put it, I wanted to restore it.”

After restoring Charlie, they focused primarily on Cessna 120s and 140s because that’s what the couple knew. “Along the way we’ve done some other stuff, but we keep coming back to the 120s and 140s because they’re pretty simple,” said Lorraine. “We’ve worked on some fabric and wood airplanes, but there are so many parts to them. The nice thing about the 140 is you have fabric, but it is still a metal substructure of the wing. And the fuselage is all metal.”

By the time it’s finished, every restoration has benefited from a thorough cleaning process. “We’ve disassembled every pulley, every bracket,” said Lorraine, “cleaned them, gone under the floorboards where the mice like to make their little homes, power washed the whole thing. We’ve really cleaned it up, lightened it up a lot, because we’ve gotten rid of generally 10 to 15 pounds of crud in the bottom.”

The Morris’ estimate they’ve done 10 to 15 total restorations and “every airplane we get, I name,” said Lorraine. “I give it a name because the numbers just run together in my head. So, this one is Allie because it ends in A. We’re running out of Cs because we have had a lot of airplanes with C: Chucky and Clarence and Clifford and Charlie and several others.” Chucky was a bronze Lindy winner at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in 2017.

“I think my favorite restoration of all the ones we’ve done is Uno, which is the prototype 140A,” said Lorraine. “We replaced all but four skins on the whole airplane, and it was a labor of love. No expense was spared, which was reflected in the price in the end. It was crazy.” Uno won Grand Champion–Gold Lindy at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in 2021.

Ken specializes in engine and sheet metal work and Lorraine specializes in refurbishing interiors—either as part of a full restoration or a partial restoration on an aircraft. “I’ve been a sewer my whole life,” said Lorraine. “When we bought the first airplane that we restored, I volunteered to do the headliner and the seats. I used my mother’s old antique Singer sewing machine, and it worked pretty good.” Lorraine advertised her services in the International Cessna 120/140 Association newsletters, and word spread about Lorraine’s outstanding attention to detail and historical accuracy.

Over the years, Lorraine has conducted extensive research on original interior fabrics, colors, and stitching. “We can make the interiors original,” said Lorraine. “We’ve collected the different year models. Every time we get an airplane, almost half the airplanes have had two or three seat covers put on the previous seat cover. They’ll get a crack and they’ll just put something else on top. We’ll take it apart and find the original. So, I save all of those and know if they had buttons, if there was any special stitching, so I’d be able to recreate it.”

The Morris’ have also researched original Cessna 120/140 paint schemes. “There’s subtle differences in the paint schemes,” said Ken. Very little paint was used in 1946 and each year a little more paint was added as the design became more complex. “You can see where the stripes were along the side from the original,” said Lorraine. “So, when we get something like that, we’ll make masks or take good pictures.” They’ve also collected factory photos to help authenticate originality.

Other partial restoration work the Morrises perform includes replacing the dual skylights in the cockpit ceiling, replacing the windshield and side glass, and making the Art Deco instrument panel look factory fresh—but often with the addition of modern technology such as radios, transponders, and ADS-B while still trying to keep the aircraft as light as possible.

The next generation

Ken and Lorraine suggested they are slowing down their pace of highly detailed Cessna 140 restorations, but they are keen to see others pick up where they leave off. “I think there’s always people trying to come up through the ranks. I mean, that’s what we ended up doing,” said Lorraine. “If there’s a younger person that wants to get into it for business, they’ll have a long career.”

“They won’t have a rich career,” quipped Ken.

Lorraine and Ken are also willing to openly share their knowledge about Cessna 140s. “People are always calling us up and asking us where they can find a part, or if this is proper on their airplane, if this piece they have is original, or how do you find out if this is broken or cracked?” said Lorraine. “So, we’re always coming out here with the camera and taking videos of stuff and sending it to them.”

The Morrises have amassed spare parts spread among numerous hangars for future restorations. “We started collecting parts as we would repair something,” said Lorraine. “We would buy a bunch of parts from somebody, and we’d keep all the extras in case somebody else would need it. We’ve gotten to the point now where you could be given an airplane, and you’re going to lose money on it just because of generally how much is required to repair it. So, we started buying engines, and they come with airplanes, and now we’re parting out what we can, keeping the stuff that’s going to be usable to somebody in the future. I’m hoping that by passing on the information and making sure the parts are saved and available, we can get a new generation to help [preserve] them.”

Cessna 140 gurus

Do Lorraine and Ken see themselves as Cessna 140 gurus? “I used to think so,” said Ken, “but the more I learn, the less I know.”

“I think that’s very true,” said Lorraine. “I feel like I have a handle on everything. And then I’ll find out something else and kind of go, oh, I guess I didn’t know everything after all. I get that feeling a lot. I know we’ve delved into it pretty deeply. So, I think we have a handle on a lot of it. But we still call people when we have questions.”

“We consider it a very wonderful airplane,” said Ken. “I consider the 140—and the 140A especially—probably the best two-place postwar trainer built.”

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