My World Tuesday #49: "And This Is The Piper Cub"

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"Mind You Don't Stall Her, Kirk"
Winston Salem, NC - September 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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If you tuned in last week, you saw a bunch of people (a big bunch of people) out watching a Piper Cub and here, under the hand of pilot Kirk Wicker, is the Piper Cub in question. The program says this is a J3 Cub, putting its vintage at somewhere between 1938 and 1947, and it's quite possible (even likely) that this - along with most J3's registered during and after WWII wactually began life as an L4 "elementary trainer" used by the US military. By the end of the war, over 80% of US military pilots had gotten their initial fligth training in a Cub. With only arond 65bhp on tap, a vertical climb like this one could easily stall the J3 if sustained for very long. What you're seeing here is actually one stage of an inside loop though, not a vertical climb. After seeing the high-performance stunt aircraft of John Klatt and the fearsome power of the B-1B, watching the Cub was almost like watching a kite in slow motion. But for all that, the demonostration was no less impressive. If airplanes were automobiles, the Cub would be the equivalent of the original VW Beetle. Even today a J3 (that cost $2500 USD new in 1938) would probably fetch around $30,000 USD. Which is less than the cost of a lot of new cars. The cars are probably faster (the Cub's top speed in level flight is only around 87 mph) but they still can't do this.

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