Piper PA-18 Super Cub

The basis of the Cub was born in 1931 with the Taylor Aircraft Company’s E-2. Developed by C G  Taylor and his partner W T Piper, it was an open cockpit parasol monoplane based on the fabric covered welded steel tube fuselage and wooden sparred wing of their earlier Model D primary glider. The production E-2, fitted with the new 40hp Continental flat four engine, far outsold the later Taylor models F, G and H and in 1935 was transformed into the cabin model J-2 by the addition of cockpit glazing faired into the rear fuselage lines. This was despite the fact that Walter Jamouneau, responsible for the redesign, had been instructed by Taylor, just before he went absent on sick leave, to make some minor detail changes.

The first new model post war was the PA-11 Cub Special with a fully cowled engine (now a 65 or 90hp Continental) and the fuel tank moved from the front fuselage to the left wing root, so moving the centre of gravity to allow solo flight from the front seat. In November 1949 the further strengthened PA-18 Super Cub was introduced, gradually improved by the introduction of an electrical system, trailing edge flaps and a series of much more powerful engines.

About this aircraft

This aircraft was built in 1961 and registered as G-ARSR until it was transferred to Sudan in 1962 where it became ST-ABR (it was used as a locust crop spraying aircraft for a time). It returned to the UK in 1979 and was registered as G-BGWH. It went through a few owners and spent the 20 years from 1988 to 2008 at Clacton Airfield before being purchased for the Shuttleworth Collection by the SVAS in October 2008, specifically to tow gliders and for use as a pilot training aircraft. In the winter of 2009 the aircraft was re-registered G-SVAS, in recognition of the Collection’s support team, The Shuttleworth Veteran Aeroplane Society, who had purchased it.

Specification