L-4 Grasshopper SP-MAM
Year built
1943
Aircraft
L-4H Grasshopper
Base
Pobiednik Wielki Airfield
This exact Piper Cub left the Piper production plant in 1943 as an L-4H and was taken on Strength with the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) with Serial Number 43-30515 later that year. It was then transferred to the 9th Air Force and later to the 101st Airborne Division in Welford, England.
In 1946 the aircraft was put in storage in Goppingen, Germany before being transferred to the Polish Ministry of Communications later that year.
In 1949 it was sold into private hands where it flew with civilian registrations SP-ALD and SP-BAL before becoming SP-MAM on the 2nd of July 2003.
In 2017 the aircraft received a new Israeli Air Force colour scheme with “51” markings it wears to this day.
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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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