The classic Piper Cub, the J3C-65 in our collection, evolved from the Taylor E-2 of 1930, a bare-bones design with open tandem seating accessed through a long, bottom-hinged door on the right side of the fuselage. Initially, it was to be powered by a 20-hp Brownback “Tiger Kitten” two-cylinder engine. The Kitten didn’t fly – literally – but it did inspire the “Cub” nickname. Production E-2s rolled off the line in 1931 with the newly introduced Continental A-40.
The “classic” Cub, the J-3, arrived in 1937, just in time to become the trainer of choice for the new, college-based Civilian Pilot Training Program and give tens of thousands of men and women their first taste of flying. Dressed in olive drab and designated the L-4, the Cub was the only light plane to serve overseas in the liaison role during World War Two.
Its success continued post-war; so great was demand in 1946 that Piper set up an additional production line in Ponca City, Oklahoma. The museum’s J-3 was one of 1,190 examples built there, out of a total of 6,320 Cubs delivered in that boom year.
NC3403K passed through a number of owners. At one point, it was re-licensed as a crop sprayer, its standard A-65 Continental upgraded to 85hp. It finally wound up, in its present owner’s words, as “a pile of junk on the hangar floor” in Chattanooga, OK. It was a pile of complete, well-preserved junk, though, which convinced John Konneker to buy it in 1993. Though he had owned other airplanes, John said, “I always wanted a J-3.”
John found a mentor in EAA’s Norm Petersen, a fellow Cub owner who put him in touch with Stearman specialist Chuck Andreas in Wisconsin. Andreas produced a very authentic restoration, right down to the period tires and cream-colored gauges. John then made the decision to loan the aircraft to the EAA museum for display.
Product Code: 5433ESShipping Weight: 1 lbs
Inventory Status: In Stock
Aircraft on loan from John Konneker
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