The Cessna 210 began as a retractable undercarriage version of the Cessna 182 itself a tricycle-geared derivation of the tail-dragger Cessna 180. It first flew as the "Model 185" at the beginning of 1957, and was the first Cessna model to start production life with a swept fin (added on the second prototype in 1958, renamed "Model 210") and retracting gear.

The early aircraft had the straight rear fuselage and faired rear cabin, but from the 210B, the "omni-vision" rear window and accompanying narrow rear fuselage appeared. The type was known, from the up-powered 210D if 1964, as the Centurion. Strutless cantilever wings appeared in 1967 with the 210G. These later aircraft had a smaller, square rear window, rather than the "omni-vision" style.
The cantilever wing had a distinct dihedral and was placed further aft. The 210J lost the distinctive chin bump of earlier models, with its more rounded cowling in 1969. Other developments included long side windows on the 210K's larger cabin, widely spaced nose landing lights on the 210L, and introduction of optional turbo-charged versions from the F model onwards. In 1978, the fully pressurised model P210N was introduced, with four distinctive small windows on each side.
The last model was the 210R/T210R of 1985, which was quite expensive. Only 112 were built. Production of the 21 ended in 1986, but in 1998 Cessna considered returning the type to production.