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History

This exact Piper Cub left the Piper production plant in 1944 as an L-4H and was taken on Strength with the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) with Serial Number 44-79889 later that year. It was then transferred to Lock Haven, Pennsylvania where it was officially handed over to the USAAF.

Later that year it was dismantled and transported by ship to Azeville, France where it served with the 50th Mobile Reclamation and Repair Squadron and later with the 280th Field Artillery Battalion.

On the 8th April 1945, it crashed on a ridge in low cloud cover but was repaired and transferred to the 9th Air Force that same month.

In 1946 the aircraft was put in storage in Goppingen, Germany before being transferred to the Polish Ministry of Communications in December of that year.

On the 6th of September 1947, it was sold to the League of Aviation in Warsaw where it received a civilian registration SP-AFY.

In 1949 SP-AFY was delivered to the Warsaw Aero Club and in 1950 it was sold to the Institute of Aviation where it was converted into a floatplane.

In 1963 the aircraft was restored to its original configuration by WSK(PZL)-Swidnik and sold to a private operator where it received a new civil registration SP-AMH.

It was sold again in 1972 to MOTOR Sports Club in Lublin who owned it until 1977 before selling it to a private operator in a bad condition. The new owner began the restoration project but before it finished he sold it in 1990.

The new owner completed the restoration and sold the completed aircraft to the current owner who painted the aircraft USAAF colours with F, 39 and civil registration SP-AFY.

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The Aircraft

Piper L-4H Grasshopper

The Piper J-3 Cub was vastly popular as a civilian trainer and sport plane before the U.S. Army Air Corps selected the aircraft for evaluation as an artillery spotter/director platform. Military versions of the Piper Cub were known as the L-4 Grasshopper, for its ability to fly out of small spaces.

The L-4 was a two-place tandem cockpit, dual-control aircraft and was among the most useful tactical aircraft of WW II. It featured a fabric-covered frame with wooden spar, metal-ribbed wings, a metal-tube fuselage and a metal-tube empennage. Its fixed landing gear used “rubber-band” bungee cord shock absorbers along with hydraulic brakes and no flaps. Flight instruments included an airspeed indicator, altimeter, compass and simple turn-and-bank indicator. It was equipped with a two-way radio, powered by a wind-driven generator. A Plexiglas greenhouse skylight and rear windows were added to increase visibility on the military variant.

At least 5,703 J-3/L4 aircraft were built for the military. As Bill Piper, Jr. said, “All we had to do was paint the Cub olive drab to produce a military airplane.” A few L-4B versions were field modified and fitted with bazooka anti-tank rockets mounted to the wing struts. The J-3/L-4 not only introduced thousands of aspiring military aviators to the basics of flying, but it also became a versatile workhorse on the battlefields of World War II. Many hundreds of Cubs are still airworthy around the world.
This aircraft was delivered from the Piper factory to the Army’s artillery school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, during World War II. It was donated to the Museum by Barbara Britt O’Donnell in honour of her late husband Hugh O’Donnell and is painted in the markings of the 36th Infantry Division, Texas National Guard.

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