Piper PA-18 Super Cub
The Piper PA-18 Super Cub is a two-seat, single-engine, high-wing light aircraft that Piper Aircraft introduced in 1949 as a strengthened development of the PA-11 Cub Special. Built at Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, it became a standard bush plane and utility aircraft: about 8,500 civil Super Cubs were delivered, and more than 1,800 went to the U.S. and foreign military services as the L-18 and L-21 liaison and training aircraft. Production at Lock Haven ended in 1983 and resumed briefly at Vero Beach from 1988. The type remains in widespread private use for backcountry flying, and its design continues in derivatives built by other companies.
Why It Mattered
The Super Cub began with a military requirement: late in 1948 the U.S. Army came to Piper asking for a light aircraft to handle reconnaissance, patrol and training work. Piper responded with a strengthened development of its PA-11 Cub Special, keeping the Cub family's fabric-over-steel-tube structure while adding the power and equipment of a working utility airplane. Clyde Smith Jr., who restores Cubs, told AOPA the type is "just like a four-wheeler or SUV", well suited to bush work of every kind. More than 10,000 were built for civil and military customers, and the PA-18 was the last Piper production type to carry the Cub name.
Design Notes
The PA-18 kept the earlier Cubs' basic structure, fabric stretched over a steel tube frame. Its airframe was a strengthened PA-11, able to support an engine of up to 150 hp where the PA-11 had flown behind a 65 hp Continental. Early Super Cubs were powered by a 90-horsepower Continental C90-12 or a Lycoming O-235, and the line later settled on Lycoming engines of up to 150 hp. Against the Cub Special, Piper added a fuel tank in the right wing to increase range, a full upper windscreen and skylight for visibility, and an electrical system that ended hand-propping and allowed lights and radios. Wing flaps were fitted, and the gross weight rose to 1,500 pounds and later 1,750 pounds. The high-lift wing and powerful engine made the type a natural candidate for conversion to floats or skis, and Piper also built an agricultural version, the PA-18A, for applying dry chemical or liquid spray.
Operational History
Piper introduced the PA-18 in November 1949, offering it in Standard and Deluxe trims — the Deluxe adding a starter and generator — plus an agricultural model. Production was centred at Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, where about 8,500 Super Cubs were built for civil customers. The military services took more than 1,800 more, delivered to the United States and several foreign services as the L-18C and L-21 for liaison, training, transport and target-tug work. The Continental-powered military version was the L-18; Lycoming-powered versions were classified as L-21s. In civil hands the type worked in the bush and in fish and game work, pipeline and power line inspection, agriculture and float flying. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission flew a fleet of ten Super Cubs on low-level uranium surveys in the West during the 1950s; the programme flew some 14,000 hours with only two accidents, neither causing serious injury. Lock Haven built the type until the plant closed in 1983, and production resumed in 1988 at Piper's new Vero Beach, Florida facility. AOPA puts the combined civil and military total at almost 10,500 aircraft; Wikipedia's accounting gives 10,326 built.
Afterlife
The Vero Beach run was the type's last with Piper; Wikipedia dates overall manufacture to 1949–1983 and 1988–1994. The type remains in wide use long after production ended; AOPA describes it as a two-seater still popular for backcountry flying. Owners keep ageing airframes flying with a long list of modifications, and Clyde Smith Jr. told AOPA of the originals, "You can't take them out of service" — they are, he said, "just reborn again". The design also lives on beyond Piper: other companies produce Cub aircraft with modern modifications for the certified and experimental markets, and Smith calls the Super Cub the "most-copied airplane". The National Air and Space Museum preserves one working Super Cub: the Atomic Energy Commission's survey aircraft, now on display at its Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.