In 1931, the Taylorcraft aircraft company first flew the cub and little did they know at the time, they had created one of the most successful civilian aircraft ever, and here it is nearly 65 years later and the little Piper J-3 Cub, and its 135+ horsepower SuperCub variant, are still quite plentiful. The J-3 version of the "Cub" went on the market in 1937, after William T. Piper bought out Taylorcraft and changed the name to the Piper Aircraft Company of Lockhaven, Pennsylvania.
Offered with many different engines, varying from 40 HP to 65 HP, the Piper Cub would ultimately have over 20,000 J-3s and 8,000 SuperCubs manufactured by 1994, when Piper stopped manufacturing what was in its day, the world's most popular civilian aircraft.
Beginning in the early 1930s, most of the available civilian aircraft cost anywhere from $10,000 or more, but the Little Cub could be purchased for less than $2,000 (US) brand new, which even in the 1930s was quite affordable by many. Having several different variants available (J-2, J-3, the side-by-side seating J-4, and the military version L-2) the sales for the "cub" were brisk right from the start. With the outbreak of World War II, the US Army Air Corps purchased several J-3s (renumbered as an L-2) and they served faithfully as a spotter and liaison aircraft. Because of their low speed flight ability, the L-2 could land just about anywhere; from 1939 until 1945 olive drab painted L-2 Piper Cubs could be seen all over the world, transporting military officers out to the front lines, flying low & slow spotter missions, and simply filling in the hole were no other aircraft could be used.
There were also the PA-12 Super Cruiser (3-seats, 2 in front and 1 in back) and the PA-14 Family Cruiser (4-seats). It was the PA-18 Super Cub that really put the little Cub in a position of supplying aircraft preferred by the bush pilots, being as this version came with a very powerful 135 HP engine. Many of the SuperCubs were delivered with either tundra tires (oversized) or floats, and these versions—by the late 1970s—had brought the basic cost of the Supercub to just over $47,000. During the 1980s the Supercub's price skyrocketed to over $100,000, if it was equipped with floats; and there were even a few built and equipped with amphibian floats—but now we're talking as much as $200,000 or more.
The Piper Aircraft Company ended production of the Piper SuperCub in 1994 and since then a former aircraft restorer (Cub Crafters), in Yakima, Washington, has been putting together an aircraft that is very similar in appearance to the Piper SuperCub, though the Yakima based company calls their aircraft "Top Cub." Currently the Piper Aircraft Company is attempting to get the FAA to disallow this aircraft on the basis that they (Piper) could be held responsible (under the pretense of deep-pockets) in the event anyone was hurt or injured in a "Top Cub." A Top Cub is not a Piper and the Piper Aircraft Company wants the world to know that they are not connected with them, and they most surely do not approve of this aircraft. Cub Crafters of Yakima claims that their aircraft, the Top Cub, is built to higher standards than the original Piper SuperCubs were and to date they have sold and delivered just over 50 of these new model aircraft. So far the FAA has sided with Cub Crafters, as they (Cub Crafters) are building the Top Cub under the FAA regulation that allows anybody to build any civilian aircraft, as long as it meets the design as originally certified. In other words, each individual Top Cub built is being treated as a home-built experimental and each individual aircraft is being FAA certified on its own. The yearly premiums for the necessary insurance, to the New Piper company, would easily reach as much as $3,000,000 per year to cover a taildragger, but being as Cub Crafters carries no such insurance and their net value of the company is so low, anyone filing a suit would gain next to nothing. Each individual customer of Cub Crafters is highly encouraged to obtain their own insurance coverage. It is highly unlikely that the New Piper Company or any aircraft manufacturing company will manufacture a taildragger ever again, but it will be the small specialty companies, like Cub Crafters, that will keep the dream alive.
Now, all that I've written above is just the statistical side of the Cub, but it is the personal involvement that so many have had with the Cub and its various models over the many years that has really set this aircraft above all others of its era. There are an untold number of pilots that in all probability had their first flight experience in a Piper Cub, and at one time this aircraft was so popular and so commonplace that every single-engined aircraft was simply referred to as a "Piper Cub," regardless of whether it be a Cessna or a Beechcraft.
Though production of the Cub ended in 1994, there are latterly thousands of Piper Cubs still flying around the world and I suspect that there are still many individuals today that will probably have their first experience at powered flight in the famous Piper Cub. With the J-3 model, the engine's cylinders extend out into the airstream for cooling (the Supercub is quite recognizable by its cowling over the engine's four cylinders vs the exposed cylinders on the standard cub). There are many clubs for the "Cub" located at the four corners of the world and the Piper Cub and SuperCub are some of the most copied aircraft for the R/C folks (see photo) as well.
Besides the increased power (from 60 HP to 135+ HP), the SuperCub also had landing flaps, which the original model J-3 did not. This improvement, by way of nearly 2 1/2 times the power, really changes this little aircraft in many respects, and it wasn't until this engine change and the addition of the landing flaps that the Cub really became a viable and very popular bush aircraft. The original SuperCub, introduced in 1949, had a 135 horse Lycoming, but in 1954, Piper released the 150 horsepower version and this quickly became the workhorse of the Alaskan bush pilot. One often hears the de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver called "the world's greatest bush plane," and there is some truth to that comment—but if you were to ask a bush pilot of the 1950s or '60s, the 150 horse Piper SuperCub invariably would be the aircraft named. The small size and low weight of the SuperCub, combined with its high power-to-wing area afforded the bush pilot with an aircraft that provided few restrictions as to where you could operate it. The Beaver was/is simply too big and heavy to operate safely into many areas.
My personal first experience in a float plane was with a float equipped SuperCub and frankly, I was more than a little impressed with this wonderful little aircraft. I've also personally viewed a tundra wheeled SuperCub that had been modified with a STOL wing (wing-tip drops and slotted flaps), as this particular SuperCub could land at just under 25 knots of airspeed, absolutely amazing! It wasn't until the late 1960s that Piper introduced the 180 HP SuperCub and that aircraft engine combination became standard fare until the end of its production in 1994.
If you ever have the opportunity to wander around the hangers at Lake Hood in Anchorage, Alaska, you will be quite surprised at the number of SuperCubs, in all configurations, based there. I'm sure this is true for landing fields and airports up and down the Pacific side of North America, from Seattle to Vancouver (BC) and all the way up to Anchorage. Considering the popularity of bush aircraft, like the de Havillands and Cessnas, it is quite surprising at the number of Piper SuperCubs still making their way across the wild and open country of Western Canada and Alaska. It's understandable though, that the Piper SuperCub is still considered (by the seasoned Alaska bush pilot) the finest bush plane ever invented. There are several SuperCubs that have been outfitted by their individual owners with up to 225 hp engines; this power increase hasn't had much effect on top or cruise speeds, but man these babies can climb like a Saturn V rocket with a stuck throttle!
When the original J-3 Cub was released, its intended function was of course as a basic trainer and frankly it fit that need quite well, but that was also in a time when nearly all small single-engined aircraft were taildraggers. It is interesting to note that the main reason that Piper discontinued production on the SuperCub, in 1994, was because of the notorious difficulty in landing a taildragger! Taildraggers have a problem landing in a crosswind, as the possibility of ground-looping is ever present. It is often been said by veteran flight instructors, that pilots that learn to fly in a taildragger are generally the better aviators in the long run and I would generally agree with that assessment.
Retired Captain Manton Fain first soloed in 1942 and the aircraft, of course, was a Piper Cub, but 50 years later Manton Fain retired from the left seat of the Concorde. During a recent interview, Mr. Fain commented, "If you can fly a Cub, you can fly the Concorde, but the reverse is not necessarily true!" Again, Captain Fain was relating to the general difficulty in handling a taildragger type aircraft at low speeds in a crosswind. Trust me, it is not an easy thing to do, especially for those pilots that have learned to fly with a tri-cycled geared aircraft.
Another problem with the Cub while landing (or most taildraggers for that matter) is your lack of forward visibility while flying at these lower speeds, and this combined with a slight crosswind can easily lead to a bent aircraft. You can try this in FS2002 by selecting an example of the SuperCub, then setting up the weather for a crosswind at your favorite airport. Try it, as you will quickly see how hard it is to land without ground-looping right off the runway, even in a flight sim like FS2002!
Beginning in the early part of the 1950s, the Piper SuperCub began appearing in the more remote parts of Canada and Alaska and because of its low cost at the time, many of the early commercial bush pilots made the SuperCub their aircraft of choice. One of the most famous of all Alaskan bush pilots was the late Don Sheldon (see sidebar, the Don Sheldon story) and he started his Talkeetna Air Service with a ski equipped Piper SuperCub. It was not uncommon to see Don's little yellow & red SuperCub parked high upon a Mt. McKinley glacier or down on a sandbar in the middle of an Alaskan river. Now, even though the de Havillands (Beavers or Otters) were capable of carrying a much bigger load of supplies or number of people than could the SuperCub, the SuperCub still made its home in the wilds of North America because of its lightweight, compact size, easy handling and slow landing speeds.
In the mid 1960s a friend of my father's, the late Max Barry of Boise, Idaho, took me on a trip in his modified SuperCub into a remote lake up near the Sawtooth Mountain Range (Idaho). Max's SuperCub was equipped with tundra wheels and we landed near the lake in a small clearing (300 foot diameter clearing) nestled among 50 to 75 foot pine trees. Max could takeoff from a deadstop and clear a 50' (16m) tree in just under 250 feet (85m), and he could land in less than 100 feet (33m), which is very impressive in anybody's book! It was Max Barry that first taught me the techniques of altitude jumping on takeoff and I was able to use that technique with other aircraft as well. I'm sure that I join the thousands of individuals that have had experience with the Piper Cub, and like those thousands, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it!
The Piper Cub and its later variants like the SuperCub have written their place in aviation history and I am sure that the Piper Cub holds a special place in the hearts and minds of countless thousands of pilots. Between 1934, when the first Cub flew, until 1994, over 40,000 Piper Cubs were built and it is hard to imagine the Cub not being mentioned when a group of pilots are discussing the world's most famous or the world's best aircraft.
Piper Cub in FS2002!
There are several choices of Piper Cubs that can be downloaded and installed into FS2002 for you enjoyment and all but one can be found in the AVSIM library, along with some really terrific panels.
To find the Cub or SuperCub of your choice you can use the following directory or list for your search:
Piper PA-22/20 Pacer (wheeled) pa20_2k2.zip by Brian Gladden
Piper SuperCub PA-18 of Aero Club Megève (ski) f-bsjh.zip by Steven Grant-Yannick Lavigne-Jean-Claude Meziat (available for download at French Altiports) The Paper Cub! Now for something a bit different, you might try out this website: Fiddlers Green where you can download a printable cutout pattern of you favorite aircraft. (Iironically the freeware download example is of a Piper Cub on floats.)
— Steve (Bear) Cartwright
* Phillip Treweek photos; used by permission of author. Click here to return to the main Bush Flying in FS2002 page.
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