November 2012
It started back in the mid-1920s when brothers Gilbert and Gordon Taylor (along with their father, Arthur) purchased a surplus Curtiss JN-4 aircraft and learned to fly. The Taylors started a barnstorming business, the North Star Aerial Service Corp. in Rochester, N.Y.
In 1927, the Taylors were in the aircraft manufacturing business. Their first aircraft was a two-seat (side-by-side) monoplane known as the A-2 Chummy. Unfortunately, Gordon was killed during an airshow in 1928, but Gilbert vowed to continue in the aviation business.
He built a new model—the B-2 Chummy—and named his business the Taylor Brothers Aircraft Co. Thinking of aircraft production, Gilbert realized that the Rochester facility was too small and looked for larger premises.
In the winter of 1928 he moved to Bradford in northern Pennsylvania. Bradford had been an oil-rich town, so new businesses were welcomed. On the town council was a certain William Thomas Piper, who joined the board of Taylor Brothers.
In 1929, Gilbert entered the Guggenenheim International Safe Aircraft Competition with a reworked Chummy, the C-2. The C-2 had variable-incidence wings. (This design feature is also called a variable-sweep wing, swept wing, or “swing wing.” —Ed.)
The B-2 Chummy did not sell well—it was heavy and expensive—and Taylor Brothers Aircraft Co. went bust in the summer of 1930.
Board member William T. Piper purchased the assets, set himself up as treasurer and Gilbert Taylor as chief engineer, and named the company Taylor Aircraft. It was a 50-50 agreement between Piper and Taylor. William T. Piper had a dream…. to build and sell airplanes that everyone could afford and for every town to have an airport.
Taylor Aircraft’s simple plane
To keep busy, Gilbert designed the D-1 Glider, which spawned the idea of producing a simple, lightweight, low-powered aircraft. This was the E-2; serial number 11/NC10547. Unfortunately there were no engines available for the airplane’s size and weight.
The Light Manufacturing and Foundry Co. of Pottstown, Penn., which had a small 24 hp two-cylinder engine, requested the opportunity to put its engine in the E-2. George Kirkendall, a sales engineer, arrived at the Taylor factory and installed the engine.
On Sept. 12, 1930, Kirkendall barely got airborne (the engine was underpowered), so he was thanked and sent on his way. The engine was the Brownbach Tiger Kitten. It is not known who suggested the aircraft be called “Cub” (after the Kitten engine name). Was it George Kirkendall, or Taylor Aircraft employee Gilbert Hadrel?
A French-made 40 hp Salmson D-9 engine was tried out and the aircraft had a successful first flight on Sept. 23, 1930, but the D-9 was expensive and built to metric dimensions, a potential problem in the United States. Production couldn’t get underway until an engine was found.
Continental Motors of Detroit, Mich. had developed a flat four-cylinder opposed A40 engine during 1930. The Taylor company purchased one and fitted it to serial number 12/NC10594 which was completed on March 31, 1931.
The E-2 Cub was certified on June 15, 1931 under Category 2 (or “memo”) approval, and production got underway. Several different engines were installed in those early years: the F-2 with an Aeromarine AR-3-40; the G-2 with a Taylor Aircraft engine; the H-2 with a Szekely SR-3-35 engine. A total of 358 Cubs were built by 1936.
The buyout, then disaster
William T. Piper’s and C. Gilbert Taylor’s management styles were very different and this sometimes led to difficulties in their working relationship. Things came to a head in November 1935 after Taylor’s prolonged absence due to ill health.
As chief engineer, Taylor insisted on retaining authority for all design changes, but Piper was keen to maintain a program of product improvements to the original Cub design to maximize sales. He encouraged the young and newly employed engineer Walter Jamoneau to update the design (into the J-2); not surprisingly, this caused major problems between Gilbert and William T., which resulted in William T. buying out Gilbert’s share in the company.
Gilbert Taylor left for Ohio where he set up the Taylor-Young Co. (later Taylorcraft).
Things were going well with production of the J-2 Cub, when on the night of March 16, 1937, disaster struck at the Bradford factory. William T. had been out west selling Cubs when he was informed that he no longer had a factory. It had burned to the ground. He hurried back to Bradford to find alternative production facilities.
Jake Miller (who later became Piper’s sales manager) was running a Cub dealership in 1937 and suggested an abandoned silk mill at Lock Haven in central Pennsylvania. It could be purchased cheaply and had many other advantages: it was a large building (100,000 square feet); it was beside an airport; and it was situated next to railroad tracks. Furthermore, its proximity to the west branch of the Susquehanna River would be ideal for seaplanes.
Production resumes… for Piper Aircraft
So it was that Taylor Aircraft moved to Lock Haven in July 1937 and restarted J-2 Cub production.
With Gilbert Taylor gone, William T. decided to change the name of the company to Piper Aircraft Corp. This was registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 13, 1937 (but effective Nov. 1). The first Cub to wear the Piper serial number plate was serial number 1937/NC20137 produced on Nov. 2.
During 1936-37 an improved version of the Cub was developed. This was the J-3 Cub. (“K-2” would have been the next logical designation, but as Walter Jamoneau was now the chief engineer, he decided to stay with the letter “J.”) The prototype of this new model was serial number 600/NX16792 and its serial number was changed to 1999 and its type to J-3 on Oct. 8, 1937.
The J-3 Type Certificate A660 was awarded to Piper on Oct. 30, 1937 and production commenced in December of that same year.
Piper offered various engines over the years: J3C (Continental), J3F (Franklin), J3L (Lycoming), and J3P (Lenape Papoose), with horsepower ranging from 40 to 65.
William T. was instrumental in persuading the U.S. Armed Forces of the advantages of its light airplane in war. The Cub saw use as a liaison and observation plane as the O-59 model with a greenhouse enclosure and painted in olive drab and gray. Later it was manufactured as the L-4A, L-4B, L-4H and L-4J. Also, the U.S. Navy ordered the Cub designated NE-1, and the Army ordered a three-place glider designated TG-8.
A total of 20,303 J-3 Cubs (and variants) were built at three separate plants. These included Lock Haven, a satellite factory at Ponca City, Okla. and at Cub Aircraft at Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
The J-4 and beyond
During 1938 the side-by-side J-4 Cub Coupe was developed and manufactured until 1942, and in 1939 the three-place J-5 Cub Cruiser was developed and manufactured, which became the PA-12 Super Cruiser after World War II. Also after the war, the J-3 Cub was replaced by the PA-11 Cub Special which, in 1949, was replaced by the PA-18 Super Cub.
Piper produced a total of 40,000 “long-wing” Cub aircraft; the last one, a PA-18, was built in 1994. The Super Cub is known for its ruggedness and versatility with many examples flying in extreme areas of the world with floats or balloon tires.
During World War II when civilian aircraft production was not allowed, Piper tested several miscellaneous designs: P-1 Applegate Duck amphibian; two-place P-2; four-place P-4; PT-1 Primary Trainer; LBP-1 Glomb, PA-6 Sky Sedan, PWA Skycoupe and PA-8 Skycycle. None of these went into production.
After World War II, Piper’s backlog of orders reached $11 million and the factory was working six days a week with three shifts producing 15 Cubs a day. The 1946 financial year was a record with 7,782 aircraft sold.
Despite these records, the company still experienced a loss through not charging enough for its aircraft. Piper Aircraft Corp. was in trouble, as was the rest of the aircraft industry.
Financial trouble
In March 1947, Piper defaulted on a loan and the banks brought in William C. Schriver to run the company. Most of the board members, including William T. and his sons, resigned from the board.
With production at a virtual standstill, and since there was a large stock of unused components, the logical thing to do was to design and build an aircraft that could make use of the stock.
The resulting aircraft was the PA-15 Vagabond and it is recognized as the plane that saved the company. “Keep it cheap!” was the cry from management—so it was painted yellow, but had no stripe down the fuselage side.
Later this short-wing design spawned the four-place Clipper, Pacer and nosewheel Tri-Pacer. Piper ended up building nearly 12,000 “short-wing” aircraft, ending with the Colt in 1964.
William T. Piper back at the helm
It was not until January 1950 that William T. got his company back. In 1951 Piper Aircraft was back in the black with sales of nearly $6 million. During the 1950s, the company brought to market its first business aircraft, the PA-23 Apache.
This was a major change for Piper; not only was the Apache a low-wing twin, but it was made of metal (no fabric) and had a radio and navigational aids for the business flyer. Priced to sell, it was such a success that Piper built it using four final assembly lines at the Lock Haven factory. Later Piper updated the design with larger 250 hp engines and debuted it as the Aztec. Nearly 7,000 PA-23 aircraft were produced by the time production ended in 1981.
Piper expanded its model range in 1958 with the high performance and sleek single engine PA-24 Comanche. Again the Comanche was aimed at the business flyer and sold in great numbers. Later, Ed Swearingen developed a twin engine version—the PA-30 Twin Comanche—and this was introduced in 1963. A total of 7,000 Comanches were produced by the time the line was shut down as a result of the flood at Lock Haven in 1972.
By November 1959, 50,000 aircraft had been produced and Piper expanded its main manufacturing facility and headquarters at Lock Haven and opened a new development and manufacturing facility at Vero Beach, Fla.
Success in replacing aging designs
Fred Weick was brought in from Texas A&M to design a new agricultural aircraft and the replacement for the aging Tri-Pacer. Developed at Vero Beach, the PA-25 Pawnee agricultural aircraft was unique. It was specifically designed for dusting and spraying crops.
The Pawnee was built at Lock Haven, as it consisted of steel tubing and fabric (and was therefore common with the Cub models). In the early 1970s, an all-metal larger agricultural aircraft was produced: the PA-36 Pawnee Brave. In total 6,000 Pawnees were produced.
The replacement for the four-place, high-wing Tri-Pacer was the low-wing PA-28 Cherokee. It was introduced in 1961.
The Cherokee had gone through a fast development program at Vero Beach led by Karl Bergey and over the years, this initial Cherokee design spawned many models. These include aircraft with higher power (Cherokee 180 & 235); retractable gear (Arrow); six-place, longer fuselage (Cherokee Six & Lance); two engines (Seneca and Seminole); and a new semi-tapered wing (Warrior and Archer). Many of these Cherokee variants are still in production and currently more than 51,000 aircraft have been produced.
With sales to both private and business customers on the rise, the company expanded its distributor and dealer network across the world. In 1965 Piper received the President’s “E” Award for outstanding export achievement with nearly 20 percent of Piper’s sales being exported that year.
In 1969, Piper’s sales exceeded $100 million; it established sub-assembly plants at Quehanna and Renovo, Penn., and purchased land for a facility at Lakeland, Fla. for the proposed production of the PA-35 Pocono that was under development at Vero Beach.
Business was booming and the new cabin-class, eight-seat PA-31 Navajo twin introduced at Lock Haven in 1967 was a great success.
Big changes in leadership, and another disaster
In 1969 an attempt was made to gain control of the Piper Aircraft Corp. by Herbert J. Siegel, the new owner of Chris-Craft Industries Inc. Siegel had telephoned W.T. Piper Jr. and informed Piper of his intended takeover of the corporation. The Pipers were not happy about the prospect, so they looked around for help.
By May the Pipers had no option but to agree to sell their shares to Bangor Punta Corp. and by August of that year, Bangor Punta and Chris-Craft were jointly in control. Only W.T. Piper Jr. remained on the board; he served as chairman until 1975. W.T. Piper Sr. died in January 1970 after a short illness.
In June 1972, tropical storm Agnes caused the Susquehanna River to overflow its banks and flood many parts of Pennsylvania including the factory at Lock Haven. It caused severe damage and cost Piper Aircraft Corp. millions of dollars.
Expansion and decline, yet success continues
During the late 1960s and early 1970s the Navajo line was expanded with a stretched version for the commuter airlines, the Chieftain; a pressurized version, the PA-31P Mojave; and a turbine version, the PA-31T Cheyenne.
In 1973 Piper moved its Navajo and Chieftain production to Lakeland, and these were the first aircraft to be built at that factory. (The Pocono program—Piper’s ill-fated foray into commuter aircraft—had been cancelled in 1969.) Corporate Cheyenne III and IV models were also built in Lakeland. Nearly 5,000 Navajos and Cheyennes were produced.
By April 1976 the 100,000th Piper rolled off the production line, a Cheyenne. By 1978 Piper had six plants covering more than 2 million square feet, and including the newly purchased Aerostar line of aircraft based at Santa Maria, Calif. Piper employed more than 4,000 people and delivered 5,253 aircraft in 1979. It was to be the last good year before the light aircraft industry declined.
By the mid-1980s General Aviation was in recession and U.S. product liability laws resulted in huge insurance premiums for aircraft manufacturers. By 1985, Piper had consolidated its operations into one facility at Vero Beach, closing the other five plants.
In the late 1970s Piper had set an ambitious five-year goal to increase market share. To enable this Piper designed a new six-place, single engine high performance pressurized aircraft. The PA-46 Malibu went on sale in 1984 and was an instant success.
Later the Malibu was replaced by the Lycoming-powered Mirage. By 2008 Piper’s “M-class” family had grown to include the pressurized Mirage, the unpressurized Matrix and the PT6 turbine-powered Meridian. To date, 1,800 PA-46 aircraft have been built.
Corporate maneuvers
Lear Siegler Inc., the third conglomerate to engage in a takeover contest for Piper, was itself the target of an acquisition duel. Forstmann Little & Co. acquired Piper in early 1987 and subsequently sold it to M. Stuart Millar. By late 1989 the company was in financial trouble and production had to stop whilst finance was found. After failing to find monies, M. Stuart Millar left the company and it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Piper Aircraft came out of bankruptcy in July 1995 as the New Piper Aircraft Inc. and has been owned by various investment companies ever since. The company changed its name back to Piper Aircraft in 2006 and it is currently an investment of the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Brunei.
The legacy continues—worldwide
Piper has designed more than 150 models and manufactured more than 133,000 aircraft—of which more than 80,000 are still flying in more than 100 countries around the world. Eight models are currently in production at Vero Beach.
The Piper family was in charge for only half of the company’s 75 years, since in recent years it has been owned by conglomerates and investment companies. Regardless of the name of the majority stockholder for Piper Aircraft, I hope you will agree with me that W.T. Piper’s dream—to build and sell airplanes that everyone could afford, and for every town to have an airport—has come true.
Roger Peperell lives in Dorset, England. He’s had a lifelong passion for everything Piper including owning a Cherokee 180 for a number of years. Peperell is the company historian of Piper Aircraft Inc. at Vero Beach, a volunteer at the Piper Aviation Museum at Lock Haven and a member of the management team of the Vintage Piper Aircraft Club in the UK. He is recognized as the world’s leading authority on the history of Piper aircraft. Peperell has written several books, many articles and given numerous lectures on Piper aircraft over the years. His current book, “Piper Aircraft,” is available from the pilot shop at Piper Aircraft Inc. and Air-Britain (air-britain.com). Send questions or comments to editor@www.piperflyer.com.
