Innovation and Perseverance through the Piper J-3 Cub 

If you were learning to fly a plane in the early 1940’s, you were most likely coursing through the skies on a yellow Piper J-3 known as the Cub. Your instructor would be sitting in the front seat, providing directions with hand signals so that you could direct a wooden control stick as marketed by a Piper Aircraft Company pamphlet.   

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The Piper J-3 is central to the history of both general aviation and World War II. The Cub became a success due to its lightness, design, and affordability. The Piper J-3 was developed around the start of the second World War and quickly became a standard training aircraft for new aviators. At the Piper manufacturing plant, workers were able to leverage the Cub to secure dignified working conditions.

Who Created the Piper Cub?    

Two men were responsible for the J-3’s success. C. G. Taylor helped develop initial designs. William T. Piper, an investor, took over this work and provided marketing support.  

C. G. Taylor, Designer of the Piper Cub

As a teenager, C. G. Taylor built his first plane in his attic. He continued to learn engineering by working at various companies and managed his family’s business, the Tool, Die, and Specialty Company.  

He and his brother Gordon began the Taylor Brothers Aircraft Corporation in 1927. They soon produced their plane called the Arrowing A-2 or the Chummy. Tragically, Gordon was killed in 1928 in a barnstorming accident involving the A-2.  

Taylor then moved the company to Bradford, Pennsylvania. At the time, Bradford’s local officials wanted to attract new industries as its major natural resource – oil – was close to being depleted. It was a good fit for the aviation company.  

The Man Who Gave the Piper Cub His Name: William T. Piper

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William T. Piper was a Spanish-American War veteran and Harvard-educated mechanical engineer. He had invested in Bradford’s dying oil industry. Piper became one of the first shareholders of C. G. Taylor’s company. His interest in aircraft came from his financial stake but also his children’s “airmindedness.”    

Setbacks and Pivots During the Great Depression

At the height of the Great Depression, the heavy and expensive Chummy did not sell as well as Taylor and Piper had hoped for. The Taylor Brothers Aircraft Company went bankrupt in 1930.

Piper and Taylor were already planning to make a new plane. They hoped to make a light aircraft that would need inexpensive manufacturing and maintenance. So, Piper doubled down on his investment. He bought up $761 in shares (equivalent to around $14,000 in 2025). He also retained Taylor as the president and chief engineer. They renamed the company Taylor Aircraft Company. Together, they sought a path forward. The next plane they made was the Taylor E-2 Cub. However, it did not yet meet these expectations.  

New Designs and Break-Ups

Piper hired engineer Walter Jamouneau to further refine the aircraft. In a new 1936 design debuted: the Taylor J-2.  

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Taylor had a falling out with Piper over these changes and left Taylor Aircraft Company. He started a competing business named Taylorcraft Aviation.  

Nonetheless, the J-2 was a success.  

Building the “Cub”   

The Taylor Aircraft continued to produce the Piper Cub in the Bradford, PA plant, until it burned down in March 1937.  Then they repurposed an abandoned silk mill in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania into a larger factory. In 1937, the company was also renamed Piper Aircraft Corporation. They continued to enjoy success producing lighter and affordable planes.  

By 1937, Piper introduced the Piper J-3, the Cub.  It featured padded seats, a stronger steel tube fuselage, organized cables and controls, and a 40-horsepower engine at a price point of $1,300. For example, in 1939, it sold more planes than its competitors like Waco or Aeronco. This lower price meant more people could buy their own aircraft. However, the Piper Cub would go on to be used for much more than a plane for personal pilots.  

Piper Cubs: Versatile for World War II

As World War II loomed, the Cub’s tandem design made it ideal for military pilot training with a front and back seat. In addition to training, the Piper Aircraft Corporation competed successfully against C. G. Taylor’s Taylorcraft Aviation and others to secure war contracts for light aircraft. The U.S. military used the Piper Cubs as liaison, observation, and ambulance airplanes.  

Opening the Skies for New Pilots  

The Civil Pilot Training Program (CPTP) was an initiative on the eve of World War II to create a pool of civilian aviators to relieve military pilots for combat. In less than five years, the CPTP increased the number of pilots from 20,000 to 400,000. Three fourths of these students learned how to fly using the Piper J-3.  

For instance, at the Coffey School of Aeronautics, the only non-university institution allowed in the CPTP, students trained on a set of Piper Cubs and two other borrowed aircraft. Soon, the school’s fleet grew to 10 aircraft of mostly Cubs. The Coffey School, led by Cornelius Coffey and Willa Brown, trained men and women, Black and white. Many of their students went on to join the Tuskegee Airmen or the Women Airforce Service pilots in World War II.  Similarly, when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the CPTP program training Black pilots at the Tuskegee Institute, the chief instructor Charles Alfred Anderson took the First Lady for a flight in a Piper Cub, one of the school’s aircraft. The flight was a way the First Lady sent a message of support for Black military pilots.

Piper Workers Strike for Dignity 

As defense production ramped up across the country, conditions got worse for Piper Aircraft workers. They turned to organizing.  

On June 16, 1941, 300 Piper machinists who were members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union walked off the job to strike. They demanded greater wages.  

The strike at the Piper Aircraft plant was one of 4,288 strikes that took place in 1941. That year, 1 of every 12 workers across the country went on strike. According to a 1941 Department of Labor report, as World War II led to rapid production and cost of living increases with inflation, workers sought higher wages.  

The Piper Aircraft workers acted also as the company’s production increased. The Waterbury Democrat reported the factory ran three shifts and produced a small plane every 20 minutes.  

Some of the machinists’ coworkers acted as strikebreakers and fought with strikers at the picket line on the second day of the strike. Others affiliated with the Teamsters Union refused to cross the picket line in solidarity.  

The striking machinists likely understood the gravity of interrupting work during wartime. Shortly before they acted, President Roosevelt ordered the National Guard to take over a larger aircraft production plant in Inglewood, California on strike. Workers at the Piper Aircraft plant were divided during the strike, resulting in fights between workers rallying at the picket line and a few strikebreakers. These were pacified by the sheriff and state troopers. After negotiations mediated by federal and state negotiators, Piper workers secured their wage increases after 11 days on strike.   

Workers Save Cub Planes at Home

Union members knew their role was essential in the war effort, and they took it seriously. One year and seven months later, in 1941, machinists put themselves in danger to save plane parts and more than 100 war aircraft from the flooding Susquehanna River. Some had just come off the production line.

On the day of the flood, 25 workers who knew how to fly transported planes to higher ground, while 75 other laborers “loaded parts on canoes and ferried them to safety,” according to The Potters Herald. So many of the employees knew how to fly because they’d participated in the company’s Cub Fliers Club, receiving flight instruction at $1.12 an hour as a company benefit.

Today, the Piper J-3 Cub is an iconic antique airplane. Its designers made aviation more accessible with an affordable and easy-to-fly plane. In return, the Cub touched many facets of life during WWII. Its makers supported the war effort on the home front, fighting at times to save the aircraft and for better wages to build it. Its users opened the skies by teaching and training, including more opportunities for women and Black aviators.   

This story was adapted from The Pioneers of Flight exhibition.