The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is a four-seat, single-engine, high-wing airplane. Probably the most popular flight training aircraft in the world, the first production models were delivered in 1957, and it is still in production in 2004; more than 35,000 have been built. The Skyhawk's main competitors have been the popular Piper Cherokee, and the rarer Beechcraft Musketeer (no longer in production).

The 172 was a direct descendant of the Cessna 170, which used conventional (taildragger) landing gear instead of tricycle gear. Early 172s looked almost identical to the 170, with the same straight aft fuselage and tall gear legs, but later versions incorporated revised landing gear, a lowered rear deck, and an aft window. Cessna advertised this added rear visibility as "Omnivision. The final structural development, in the mid-1960s, was the sweptback tail still used today. The airframe has remained almost unchanged since then, with updates to avionics and engines. Production ended in the mid-1980s, but was resumed in 1996 with the 160 hp (120kW) 172S and 180 hp (135kW) 172SP.

The older Skyhawks shipped with a 145 horsepower (110 kW) engine; later planes shipped with engines up to 180 horsepower (135 kW), though 150 or 160 hp (110 or 120 kW) is more common. Cessna produced a retractable-gear version of the 172 named the Cutlass 172RG and also produced versions on floats. The 172RG also had a variable pitch, constant speed propeller and more powerful stock engine.

The normal cruising speed for a fixed-gear 172 ranges from about 105 to 125 knots, depending on the engine and vintage.

The Skyhawk is part of a large family of high-wing, tricycle-gear, single-engine Cessna planes, ranging from the two-seater 150/152 (no longer in production) to the more powerful 182 Skylane, the six-seat 206 Stationair, and the fourteen-seat turboprop 208 Caravan, along with several other models no longer produced.

See also: T-41 Mescalero.