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A Visit With Mr. Piper
Ben Keirn, Contributing Writer & Photographer
Columbia City, Indiana

If you are an aviation enthusiast, you know there are many "must see" sites across the United States. Even if you can't go when an event is on, certain places are synonymous with aerospace advancements. Kill Devil Hill near the Outer Banks if you want to see the birthplace of the modern airplane. Reno, Nevada, if you're going to see aircraft and pilots stretched to their performance limits. Old Rhinebeck, if you want to see the earliest designs still flying today. And for Piper lovers, Lock Haven, Pennsylvania for the birthplace of that iconic little yellow plane, the Piper Cub.

Piper Aircraft Corporation has long since vacated the old silk mill in the Susquehanna River Valley. But the history of the company, the planes, and the people remains. And the guardians of that history are the fine folks at the Piper Aviation Museum. You'll find them situated on the southwest side of the Piper Memorial Airport (KLHV). Whether you come by car or by airplane, you can pull right up to the museum. Whichever mode of transport you use, you'll want to call ahead to make an appointment in the current COVID situation. The fine folks at the museum are doing their part to ensure everyone gets to take home memories and memorabilia, and nothing else.

As with the Bible, the Piper Aviation Museum starts with the genesis, "in the beginning."
Along with the chronological history on the storyboards, the Piper Aviation Museum has a chronological history in the hangar. Greeting you at the door to the hangar is this early J-2 Cub donated by William T. Piper, Jr.

The museum's layout helps guide people through the history of the aircraft company. As you follow the numbered displays around the exhibit area, they tell the story from William T. Piper's early career to his involvement with the Taylor Chummy and E-2, to the eventual dissolving of the partnership and his creation of the Piper Aircraft Corporation. Before the folks on either side of the Taylor-Piper discussion get started, take to heart what the Proverbs say; "Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears" (Proverbs 26:17). Suffice it to say that without the impetus of the dissolved partnership, Taylor might never have gotten beyond the E-2 to the Taylorcraft that many know and love today. And if Piper hadn't made the command decision to have Walter Jamouneau redesign the E-2 into what eventually became the J-2 Cub, the precursor to the J-3 Cub, there wouldn't be any of those iconic little yellow planes taking over airshows and fly-ins as they do today.

Several prewar innovations are included on another early Piper design, the J-4 Cub, this one looking a lot like a J-3 with the cylinders hanging in the wind.

Before the war started, Piper was innovating within their line to compete with other companies. One such innovative design was the J-4 Cub Coupe. Side by side seating, cabin heat, upright doors, and eventually a full pressure cowling made this a sleek offering well suited for men in suits. But when the war started, the production of anything but the J-3/L-4 came to a halt, and Piper's Little Deuce Coupe never came back.

Not all Cubs were yellow; some shrugged off their civvies and donned the military uniform's olive drab to join the war.
Cubs needed aircraft carriers to get to the war zones. Thankfully, some quick thinking engineers and Seabees were able to create the necessary transport.
L-4 Grasshopper with Marine Corps markings on display in the hangar.

One of the surprises of the museum is the area discussing the Cubs during the war. I was well aware of the L-4 "Grasshopper" and the service these planes provided in liaison transportation and in reconnaissance. However, I had not thought previously about how they got the aircraft from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, to Europe and beyond. The military version of the venerable Piper Cub served in several theaters and served, or was served by the Army Air Corps, the Marines, and the Navy. I had also not considered just how good of camouflage the olive drab military colors were until I tried to photograph an L-4 against a dark ceiling!

Wartime advancements. Innovation didn't stop just because the war began. Case in point the prototype PT-1 primary trainer.

While the J-3 come, L-4 was the bread and butter of the Piper line during the war, that didn't mean they weren't trying a few new things. Most of the fighters of WWII were low wing monoplanes. So it is little surprise that the Piper Aircraft Company tried their hand to produce a low-wing military training aircraft. Such a design would be ideal for preparing all young pilots for the low wing taildraggers with the retractable landing gear. One of the less noticeable innovations in the photo is the elliptical wing, more like a Spitfire than a Cub.

After the war, the J-3 went back to work. Like so many other veterans, this Cub went to work in the fields as an aerial applicator. Though I must admit, there isn't much air between the plane and the application.
The restored J-3 Cub in the museum hangar. What do you mean your state doesn't have an official airplane?

Having proved its worth in military service, the J-3 Cub continued production for a few years after the war. Only when hard times hit the country did the production of the J-3 come to a halt. But the hard times after WWII and the end of J-3 output in 1947 didn't mean the end of the little yellow Cub's influence.

The Cub that wasn't a Cub, the first of the Short Wing Pipers, the Vagabond.

When the hard times hit after WWII and the J-3 ended production, whole J-3's and parts oversaturated the market and the factory. To create a new aircraft for the market while simultaneously using up the parts from the overproduced J-3, the Piper Aircraft Corporation created the PA-15 Vagabond. A conglomerate of the side by side J-4 and the J-3, the Vagabond had an upright door and side by side seating. The most notable departure from earlier designs is the removal of three feet of length from the root of each wing. Thus began the history of the short wing Pipers.

Before the USA had fifty states, a couple of daring men took two Piper PA-12 Super Cruisers on a globetrotting tour.
A happy plane, don't you think?

Post-war developments led to new aviation records and new airplanes. In August of 1947, two Piper Super Cruisers, the City of Angels and the City of Washington, left on a daring around the world jaunt. The pilots had the names of cities visited painted on one side of the fuselage and the countries' flags on the other side. You might think them very patriotic for having the then 48 United States flag on the cowling. But that was a suggestion by the Italians, who said it might be a good idea to be identified as an American in some of the less friendly countries of the post-war world. New records weren't the only advancements, though. In 1951, the year after the Korean war broke out, Piper decided to get into the tricycle gear market by modifying the Piper Pacer into the PA-22 Tri-Pacer. Perhaps the smile on the airplane was intended to cheer people up amidst the three-year battle.

What the modern Piper looks like; low wing, single-engine, traveling planes.
Under pressure, the pressurized Aztec prototype proved too much for the airframe, and they gave up on the idea.

As you wind your way around the displays upstairs or the hangar floor downstairs, you eventually find that the look of Piper transitions to what we all picture when someone mentions the name. If you say "Cub," we will all think of yellow taildraggers with the wing on the top. But if you say Piper today, we will think of white trikes or retractables, with the wing down low for good pattern visibility. The records began to change as well. With pilot Max Conrad at the controls, an aircraft like this Piper Comanche achieved a transatlantic crossing in just over 34 hours; it was Conrad's 50th transatlantic crossing! And though the Piper Aztec wasn't suited for pressurization, that didn't stop Conrad from taking one around the world. In contrast to the City of Angels and the City of Washington that completed the trip in 122 days, Conrad completed the circumnavigation in a cool ten days!

Some things are still waiting in the wings.

And if you were wondering if I left anything out, there is still plenty to see and do at the Piper Aviation Museum up in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. There are a couple of simulators to look at and a couple of J-3 frames with their tubing showing. The mockup of the Piper LS-400, the precursor of the Cheyenne 4, is there to marvel at, as is Piper's first foray into composite planes, the Papoose... designed and built in 1959. There are a couple of areas in the museum covering the engines of the early years and a big exhibit on Sensenich Propellers. And of course, as with any museum, projects are waiting their turn in the workshop. Included in those are a Piper Chieftain fuselage and a Skycycle, seen in the above photo. All that to say, there are plenty of reasons you should make the trip to the valleys of Pennsylvania to visit the Piper Aviation Museum for yourself. And I'm fairly certain that they won't be judgmental if you show up in some other brand of aircraft, but if you're looking for a reason, there are plenty of Pipers for you to choose from on Barnstormers.com. And where better to test out your "new to you" Piper than on a homecoming trip to the birthplace of the Piper Aviation Corporation and the classic Piper Cub.

By Ben Keirn, Contributing Writer & Photographer
Columbia City, Indiana
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