Tom, you've got a lot of experience with Warner engines. What's your opinion of how good the combination of a 170 airframe and a Warner 145 would have been? How does the weight of the Warner 145 or 165 compare to the C-145? I've often wished the Zoche diesel radial would have been a successfully produced engine.The new Cessna 170 and 190, which are new all-metal developments of the pre-war fabric-covered Airmaster, also will feature this new landing gear. The 170 and 190 differ only in their engines; one model will be powered with a Warner engine, the other with a Jacobs.
Harry Clements was an aeronautical engineer for Cessna. He wrote, "Tracking the conception, birth and life of the 172" in Air Facts Journal. In a comment on May 24, 2012 following this article he wrote,
I have another heresy to relate. About the time for the 172, and with the recent and prospective successes of Cessna’s low wing M310, T-37, and M620 I did a preliminary design of sportier appearing, low wing versions of the 170-172 and 180-182, so we would have a family of good looking low wing aircraft. They didn’t resonate with Cessna management. Given the success of the 172 and 182, they may have been right, though I notice that Wikepedia’s list of later, competetive airplanes to the 172 all are low wing configurations.