While it is certainly a tragic reminder of what would befall him in a plane much like this one, there is also reason to cherish the fact that America's eternal "first son" loved to fly and enjoy life to the fullest in aircraft like this. Thus, in offering John F. Kennedy Jr.'s 1977 Cessna Skyplane, the first aircraft he ever owned, there is no sadness, only the excitement that "John John" himself felt as he soared through the sky in it. And there is little doubt that the aircraft is the most exciting and intriguing piece of memorabilia to come to the auction block in a long time. The Cessna is painted red, white & blue and registered N529JK in honor of his father's May 29 birthday is a three-bladed propeller plane, often seen on TV (Entertainment Tonight and E! True Hollywood Story) as well as in biographies of JFK Jr. In the best seller, "The Day John Died," Christopher Anderson wrote, "...John had actually begun buzzing Red Gate Farm the previous summer in his Cessna with N529JK emblazoned on the fuselage. All summer long...he would buzz his mother's house. He would buzz it, go up, dive down and show all his friends where his house was." Included with the plane are its logbooks which detail its 2,045 hours of airtime, considered 40% less than average for a plane of its vintage. The plane has special alterations including a larger, more powerful engine and a new Simitar propeller, which have seen only 480 hours service of the total flight time. The alterations were done by Texas Skyways, Inc. The aircraft has a cruise speed of 190 mph at an altitude of 7,000 feet. It has a climb performance of 1600 feet per minute at sea level. The short field take off capabilities far surpass that of the standard Cessna Skylane. The exterior paint job and interior fabric and carpeting was done in 1998, when Kennedy purchased the plane. Kennedy sold the plane in 1999, right after purchasing the ill-fated Piper Saratoga in April of that same year. The Piper went into the sea near Martha's Vinyard with his wife and sister-in-law aboard with him on July 17, 1999. John Kennedy Jr.'s tragic death in his successor plane to this one, was a national tragedy. It brought home all the anguish the nation had experienced over decades with the Kennedy family. We prefer to remember him as we do his father, with the famous Kennedy grin on his face, the sense of commitment to his goals implicit in his confident swagger and quiet dignity, and his zest for life and his spirit of adventure. As an important item in the arcana of Kennedy family lore, we can't think of any memorabilia that better symbolizes the short life of the child of royalty who once made us cry when saluting his father's coffin, nor one that will be talked about longer for years to come.