One of the best uses of aviation is the supply and support of camps and settlements where traditional “over-road” travel isn’t possible due to distance, terrain, or weather conditions. The hard conditions faced in flying such missions leads to a breed of pilots who are as battle hardened and devoted to their flying skill as any combat pilot. These “bush pilots” dedicate their lives to flying in and around the hardest territory in the world, and this particular pilot dedicated his skin to one of the tools of his trade, the Piper PA-18 Super Cub.
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The Piper Super Cub is one of the most popular light bush planes still being used. Derived from the Piper J-3 Cub, the Super Cub was just basically a higher-powered version of the timeless Cub design. Because of it’s light weight and simple construction, combined with a fairly powerful 150hp Lycoming O-320 engine, the Super Cub has a respectable carrying capacity while still having an extremely short takeoff distance. Equipped with the balloon-like tundra tires as seen in this tattoo, the Super Cub can just about land anywhere with about 200 feet of flat land… this means river sandbars, tops of mesas, and rocky tundra plains.
Around 9000 PA-18 Super Cubs were produced from 1949-1983 and a modern production run from 1988-1994 by Piper Aircraft. Though Piper no longer produces the Super Cub, similar aircraft with the same principles are being produced by CubCrafters Inc. and Aviat Aircraft (Husky) today as new aircraft.
This black and gray tattoo was created by artist Sean Fairbanks of Bozeman’s Tattoo Alley in Bozeman, MT. The tattoo was created from several photos of the clients own aircraft.
Please click on the image above or the link below for a larger image.
