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Taildragger Tribute: Piper J-3 Cub Airplane Tattoo

Posted on September 12, 2009

It’s the end of the summer and for many pilots in the Midwest and Northeast, it’s also nearing the end of lazy-day summer fun flying as winter approaches. In tribute to fair weather flying fun, we present this tattoo of the classic Piper J-3 Cub… the timeless traditional taildragger.

The Piper J-3 Cub, produced by Piper Aircraft of Lock Haven, PA, was built from 1938 to 1947. Over 19,073 aircraft were built during that time and the simple little two-seat taildragger, powered by an equally simple Continental 65 hp engine, was popular for flight training. In fact, during WWII, the Piper Cub was heavily used by the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) which provided training that screened pilot candidates who then entered the air services of the time in the either the Army or Navy. The military also used the Cub as a liaison aircraft as the L-4.

After the war, the popular Cub was an inexpensive and simple airplane to keep the growing General Aviation community in the skies. The basic design was translated into several other Piper postwar products, namely the PA-11 Cub Special (90 hp), PA-18 Super Cub (150 hp) and those aircraft kept the basic design of the Cub for many more years.

Though the Cub and it’s derivatives are no longer produced by Piper, the J-3 design is produced in modern form by two companies… Cub Crafters in Washington and American Legend Aircraft in Texas.

This tattoo was sent to us by one of our readers who has a 1946 J-3 Cub as part of his family. The tattoo features their Cub as the centerpiece with the names of their children, Piper and Ryan, accenting it. Both kids were named after the classic aircraft companies Piper Aircraft and Ryan Aeronautical… a family certainly in love with aviation!

The artist of this colorful Cub tattoo is Jason Eggert who tattoos at Island Tattoo in Salco, NC.

Please click on the image above or the link below for a larger image.

Click the above image for the full-size photo.

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