The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design, which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is Piper Aircraft's second most-produced model after the PA-28 Cherokee series (>32,000 produced) with over 20,000 built in the United States. Its simplicity, affordability and popularity invoke comparisons to the Ford Model T automobile.
The aircraft is a high-wing, strut-braced monoplane with a large-area rectangular wing. It is most often powered by an air-cooled, flat-4 piston engine driving a fixed-pitch propeller. Its fuselage is a welded steel frame covered in fabric, seating two people in tandem.
The Cub was designed as a trainer. It had great popularity in this role and as a general aviation aircraft. Due to its performance, it was well suited for a variety of military uses such as reconnaissance, liaison and ground control. It was produced in large numbers during World War II as the L-4 Grasshopper. Many Cubs are still flying today. Cubs are highly prized as bush aircraft.
The aircraft's standard chrome yellow paint came to be known as "Cub Yellow" or "Lock Haven Yellow".
Design and development
The Taylor E-2 Cub first appeared in 1930, built by Taylor Aircraft in Bradford, Pennsylvania. Sponsored by William T. Piper, a Bradford industrialist and investor, the affordable E-2 was meant to encourage greater interest in aviation. Later in 1930, the company went bankrupt, with Piper buying the assets, but keeping founder C. Gilbert Taylor on as president. In 1936, an earlier Cub was altered by employee Walter Jamouneau to become the J-2 while Taylor was on sick leave. Some believed the "J" stood for Jamouneau, while aviation historian Peter Bowers concluded the letter simply followed the E, F, G and H models, with the letter "I" skipped because it could be mistaken for the numeral "1".Peter M. Bowers, Piper Cubs (Tab Books 1993) When he saw the redesign, Taylor was so incensed that he fired Jamouneau. Piper, however, had encouraged Jamouneau's changes and hired him back. Piper then bought Taylor's share in the company, paying him $250 per month for three years.
Although sales were initially slow, about 1,200 J-2s were produced before a fire in the Piper factory, a former silk mill in Bradford, Pennsylvania, ended its production in 1938. After Piper moved his company from Bradford to Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, the J-3, which featured further changes by Jamouneau, replaced the J-2. The changes integrated the vertical fin of the tail into the rear fuselage structure and covered it simultaneously with each of the fuselage's sides, changed the rearmost side window's shape to a smoothly curved half-oval outline and placed a steerable tailwheel at the rear end of the J-2's leaf spring-style tailskid, linked for its steering function to the lower end of the rudder with springs and lightweight chains to either end of a double-ended rudder control horn. Powered by a 40 hp (30 kW) engine, in 1938, it sold for just over $1,000.Piper J-3 Cub Film Series (TM Technologies, footage from 1937–1948 shows step-by-step construction. 110 minutes.)
Several alternative air-cooled engines, typically flat-fours, powered the J-3 Cubs, designated J3C when using the Continental A series, J3F using the Franklin 4AC, and J3L with the Lycoming O-145. Very few examples, designated J3P, were equipped with Lenape Papoose 3-cylinder radial engines.
The outbreak of hostilities in Europe in 1939, along with the growing realization that the United States might soon be drawn into World War II, resulted in the formation of the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP). The Piper J-3 Cub became the primary trainer aircraft of the CPTP and played an integral role in its success, achieving legendary status. About 75% of all new pilots in the CPTP (from a total of 435,165 graduates) were trained in Cubs. By war's end, 80% of all United States military pilots had received their initial flight training in Piper Cubs.
The need for new pilots created an insatiable appetite for the Cub. In 1940, the year before the United States entered the war, 3,016 Cubs had been built. Wartime demands soon increased that production rate to one Cub being built every 20 minutes.
Flitfire
Prior to the United States entering World War II, J-3s were part of a fund-raising program to support the United Kingdom. Billed as a Flitfire, a Piper Cub J3 bearing Royal Air Force insignia was donated by W. T. Piper and Franklin Motors to the RAF Benevolent Fund to be raffled off. Piper distributors nationwide were encouraged to do the same. On April 29, 1941, all 48 Flitfire aircraft, one for each of the 48 states that made up the country at that time, flew into La Guardia Field for a dedication and fundraising event which included Royal Navy officers from the battleship HMS Malaya, in New York for repairs, as honored guests. At least three of the original Flitfires have been restored to their original silver-doped finish.
Operational history World War II service
Minutes before the 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor, Machinist Mate 2nd Class Marcus F. Poston, a student pilot, was on a solo flight through K-T Flying Service, piloting a Piper J-3 Cub over the valley of Oahu. Poston was flying just as the Japanese planes began appearing over the island and was subsequently shot down. Poston managed to bail out and parachute to safety. The Piper J-3 Cub was the first American plane to be shot down in World War II.
The Piper Cub quickly became a familiar sight. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt took a flight in a J-3 Cub, posing for a series of publicity photos to help promote the CPTP. Newsreels and newspapers of the era often featured images of wartime leaders, such as Generals Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton and George Marshall, flying around European battlefields in Piper Cubs.
Civilian-owned Cubs joined the war effort as part of the newly formed Civil Air Patrol, patrolling the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast in a constant search for German U-boats and survivors of U-boat attacks.Campbell, Douglas E., "Volume III: U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard Aircraft Lost During World War II Listed by Aircraft Type", Lulu.com, (2011), p. 374
Piper developed a military variant ("All we had to do," Bill Jr. is quoted as saying, "was paint the Cub olive drab to produce a military airplane"), variously designated as the O-59 (1941), L-4 (after April 1942) and NE (U.S. Navy). The L-4 Grasshopper was mechanically identical to the J-3 civilian Cub, but was distinguishable by the use of a Plexiglas greenhouse skylight and rear windows for improved visibility, much like the Taylorcraft L-2 and Aeronca L-3 also in use with the US armed forces. It had accommodations for a single passenger in addition to the pilot. When carrying only the pilot, the L-4 had a top speed of , a cruise speed of , a service ceiling of , a stall speed of , an endurance of three hours,Fountain, Paul, The Maytag Messerschmitts, Flying Magazine, March 1945, p. 90: With one pilot aboard, the L-4 had a maximum endurance of three hours' flight time (no reserve) at a reduced cruising speed of 65 mph. and a range of .Gunston, Bill and Bridgman, Leonard, Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II, Studio Editions, (1989), p. 253 Some 5,413 L-4s were produced for U.S. forces, including 250 built for the U.S. Navy under contract as the NE-1 and NE-2.Frédriksen, John C., Warbirds: An Illustrated guide to U.S. Military Aircraft, 1915–2000, ABC-CLIO, (1999), p. 270Bishop, Chris, The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., (2002), p. 431
All L-4 models, as well as other tandem-seat light aircraft from Aeronca and Taylorcraft, were collectively nicknamed "Grasshoppers", although any liaison plane, regardless of manufacturer, was often referred to as a 'Cub'. The L-4 was primarily employed in World War II for artillery spotting and training liaison pilots, but short-range reconnaissance, medical evacuation, and courier or supply missions were not uncommon. During the Allied invasion of France in June 1944, the L-4's slow cruising speed and low-level maneuverability made it an ideal observation platform for spotting hidden German guns and armored vehicles waiting in ambush in the hedgerow bocage country south of the invasion beaches. For these and other operations, the pilot generally carried both an observer and communications radio, a load that sometimes exceeded the plane's specified gross weight.
Improvised ground attack After the Allied breakout in France, L-4s were occasionally equipped with improvised racks (usually in pairs or quartets) of infantry bazookas for attacking enemy vehicles. The most famous of these unlikely ground attack planes was an L-4 named Rosie the Rocketer, piloted by Maj. Charles "Bazooka Charlie" Carpenter, whose six bazooka rocket launchers were credited with eliminating several tanks and armored cars during its wartime service,What's New in Aviation: Piper Cub Tank Buster, Popular Science, Vol. 146 No. 2 (February 1945) p. 84Kerns, Raymond C., Above the Thunder: Reminiscences of a Field Artillery Pilot in World War II, Kent State University Press, (2009), pp. 23–24, 293–294 especially during the Battle of Arracourt. L-4s could also be operated from ships, using the Brodie landing system.
After the war, many L-4s were sold as surplus, but a considerable number were retained in service.Edwards, Paul M., Korean War Almanac, Infobase Publishing, (2006), p. 502 L-4s sold as surplus in the U.S. were redesignated as J-3s, but often retained their wartime glazing and paint."Nicholas Aircraft Sales", Flying Magazine, April 1946, Vol. 38, No. 4, ISSN 0015-4806, p. 106 In October 2017, the L-4H that Major Carpenter flew in World War II—s/n 43-30426—was identified in the collections of the Austrian Aviation Museum () at Graz Airport. It was acquired by the Collings Foundation and returned to its World War II appearance, by a restorer in La Pine, Oregon. The restoration was reported as complete on July 4, 2020 and the aircraft is now on public display, at the Collings Foundation's American Heritage Museum.
Postwar
An icon of the era and of American general aviation, the J-3 Cub has long been loved by pilots and nonpilots alike, with thousands still in use. Piper sold 19,073 J-3s between 1938 and 1947, the majority of them L-4s and other military variants. After the war, thousands of Grasshoppers were civilian-registered under the designation J-3. Sixty-five pre-war Taylor and Piper Cubs were assembled from parts in Canada (by Cub Aircraft). After the war, 130 J-3C-65 models were manufactured in Hamilton, Ontario. Sixteen L-4B models, (known as the Prospector), were later manufactured. The last J-3 model was assembled from parts at Leavens Bros. Toronto in 1952. J-3 Cubs were also assembled in Denmark and Argentina and by a licensee in Oklahoma.
In the late 1940s, the J-3 was replaced by the Piper PA-11 Cub Special (1,500 produced), the first Piper Cub version to have a fully enclosed cowling for its powerplant and then the Piper PA-18 Super Cub, which Piper produced until 1981 when it sold the rights to WTA Inc. In all, Piper produced 2,650 Super Cubs. The Super Cub had a 150 hp (110 kW) engine which increased its top speed to 130 mph (210 km/h). Its range was .
Korean War service On 26 June 1950, one day after the Korean War broke out, the Republic of Korea Air Force flew L-4s to Dongducheon to support the ROK 7th Infantry Division against North Korean military by dropping two bombs from an observer in the rear seat. A total of 70 bombs were dropped until the following day, then aircraft were switched back to reconnaissance mission as bombs were depleted. South Korea lost 25 L-4s throughout the Korean War.