Piper’s J-3 Cub, which many pilots and pedestrians alike consider the original general aviation airplane, has come full circle in the aircraft market
A bestseller during its decade of production starting in 1937, the J-3 eventually withdrew as others, including newer Piper models, took over its many roles from basic trainer and personal aircraft to military observation and liaison vehicle. While it arguably never quite went out of style, the Cub certainly suffered the indignities of obsolescence.
By the time the GA boom was hitting its stride in the 1960s, there were a lot of forlorn J-3 Cubs collecting dust in hangars at best. Those less fortunate were tied down with fraying rope on remote sections of sun-baked tarmac while others wound up slowly, sadly sinking into the turf—tires flat, paint fading.
During the 1970s, J-3 prices bottomed out around $2,500 or so, reflecting the design’s limbo status of being too old to compete with more capable, modern aircraft but not old enough to have appreciated in value. I was too young to know much about the used aircraft market back then. Had I been a little older and wiser, I might have snapped one up.
My first exposure to the J-3 came during a 1970s family road trip. In a rare case of perfect timing, the little yellow taildragger lifted off from a grass strip next to the highway just as we drove past.
I watched as it slowly but steadily rose ahead of the car, giving me a nice rear three-quarter view. I am sure my father, subconsciously mimicking the once-famous Barney Oldfield-Lincoln Beachey rivalry, accelerated so we could catch up, though he denied doing so for years afterward.
Either way, I noticed the speedometer’s needle easing past 70 mph, which was pretty fast in those days. We were gaining on the climbing Cub and my 6-year-old mind was racing as we pulled even with the aircraft. Could we overtake it? No, as a combination of the Cub leveling off and picking up speed, and the road curving, we fell behind and eventually lost sight of the Piper, but the experience piqued my interest in aviation.
A few years later I was completely hooked after watching a J-3 perform loops, swoops, slips, and hammerhead turns during an airshow at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in Red Hook, New York. It was my first time seeing the well-known “flying farmer” routine, and I was amazed by the wild maneuvers the seemingly underpowered Cub could pull off. It makes sense that the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum displays its J-3 in the aerobatic section.
History
The story of the J-3 Cub’s development reads somewhat like an old-fashioned soap opera with a group of characters whose business goals coalesced—for a time.
Clarence Gilbert Taylor, known as C.G., grew up in Rochester, New York, and was drawn to aviation by the pioneer Calbraith Rodgers’ 1911 flight across the U.S. in a Wright Model EX. Rodgers had just earned his pilot certificate and, after hearing about a $50,000 prize offered by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst to the first pilot to make a transcontinental flight within 30 days, figured he was up to the task.
![Many J-3 Cubs have been boosted with 85 hp engines and other modifications from bush-style wheels to full electrical systems and modern avionics.. [Credit: Leonardo Correa Luna]](https://flyingmag1.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/FLY0126_3.0-Used-Aircraft-Guide-2.jpeg?width=468)
Rodgers succeeded and Taylor set out on a path toward aircraft manufacturing. In 1926, after years of developing mechanical skills at a tool and die company, he and his brother, Gordon, bought a surplus Curtiss Jenny and, like many young pilots of the era, began a barnstorming stint to earn money and recognition. The following year they formed the Arrowing Co. to design and build a two-seat monoplane they named the A-2 Chummy. By 1928 the company was renamed Taylor Brothers Aircraft Manufacturing Co. with the tagline, “Buy Your Airplane Taylor Made.”
They did not get far.
Gordon died in an accident while demonstrating the Chummy near Detroit. C.G. continued promoting the airplane but it was a poor seller, in part because of its steep price of almost $4,000. The 1929 stock market crash further hampered sales, and soon the company was near bankruptcy.
C.G. Taylor was in luck, though. Just as his business outlook grew bleak, investors from Bradford, Pennsylvania, offered him a factory in the town and significant investments to get the company into better shape. Bradford, an oil-producing town, had been seeking ways to diversify its industrial base and local businessmen saw aviation as a promising industry.
Freshly funded, Taylor produced a new two-seat tandem, high-wing model with an open cockpit and 20 hp engine called the Cub. Taylor soon upgraded the aircraft to a 40 hp engine and called it the Taylor E-2 Cub, which received a type certificate in 1931.
The business still failed to thrive, however, and again headed toward bankruptcy as the Great Depression took hold. At that point one of the previous local investors, an oilman named William T. Piper, acquired a controlling interest in the company and reorganized it as the Taylor Aircraft Co., with Taylor remaining as president to continue developing new models.
The company’s next aircraft, the J-2 Cub, was a breakthrough that made key improvements over the E-2. The new airplane had an enclosed cockpit and rounded wingtips and tail surfaces. Redesigned landing gear gave it better ground handling.
Overall the new model was more attractive and had lost its predecessor’s harsh, angular and austere appearance. It sold well despite the difficult economic environment of the Depression. The company turned out 550 J-2s in 1936 and sales continued to grow during early 1937.
1937: Watershed Year
Things were going well at Taylor Aircraft, but Piper was not satisfied and continued to press for further development.
Among other things, he wanted to freshen up the Cub’s appearance. When sickness forced Taylor to take an extended leave of absence in early 1937, Piper saw his opportunity. He tasked Walter Jamouneau, a company engineer in his 20s, to refine the Cub’s shape and give it a look that would distinguish it from competing models.
![There are some J-3 Cubs that still retain the traditional panel. [Credit: Leonardo Correa Luna]](https://flyingmag1.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/FLY0126_3.0-Used-Aircraft-Guide-1.jpeg?width=468)
Clashes ensued when Taylor returned to work and found that his design had been modified without his consent. He took out his frustration on Jamouneau, whom he fired. Piper, however, rehired the young engineer, noting that he was following his order to rework the Cub. The bad blood continued, resulting eventually in Taylor’s departure.
Also in 1937, a fire destroyed the Taylor factory in Bradford, which resulted in Piper moving the company to a new plant in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. Once established there, and renamed Piper Aircraft Corp., the company began producing the J-3, which would help define its identity for decades to come. While the aircraft’s basic design was Taylor’s, Jamouneau gets the credit for the graceful contours that characterize the model and helped raise it to icon status.
Piper’s timing was fortuitous, because in the late 1930s President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration began organizing the Civilian Pilot Training Program, an effort that combined government and civilian efforts to train pilots as the prospect of a world war loomed. The program, which trained more than 435,000 pilots, also drove major demand for inexpensive basic training aircraft. At the time, the J-3 was the latest thing, with flight characteristics that were ideally suited to training raw student pilots.
The J-3 also saw extensive military duty during World War II. With its rear fuselage modified with more glass to aid in observation and target-spotting, J-3s renamed as L-4 Grasshoppers reconnoitered battlefields and transported military leaders throughout the conflict.
While the J-3 might seem quaint now, one has to look at its contemporary competition to fully appreciate how well it fits into the general aviation picture of the late 1930s and 1940s. Competitors such as Aeronca, which built the C-3, sometimes known as the “Flying Bathtub,” and the more advanced Aeronca K, had not quite kept pace with Piper’s advanced in design, performance and production capacity, so when demand for trainers surged, Piper was best-prepared to fill the void.
Today it seems that many pilots, from nostalgic collectors to younger aviators trying to make the most of their flying budgets, are showing renewed interest in vintage taildraggers in general and J-3s in particular.
The rise of interest in backcountry flying and adventurous travel off the beaten path also has driven a renaissance of tailwheel aircraft, with many new models in production, including several modern reinterpretations of early Piper Cubs. This trend shines a favorable light on J-3s, which possess an “OG” status like no other classic light aircraft.
Prices
Early J-3s sold for about $1,000, which translates to $22,000 in 2025 when adjusted for inflation. Prices gradually rose to more than $1,500 during the model’s 11 years of production, but the J-3 generally cost about as much as an average car of the same era.
![Piper J-3 Cub [Credit: Fernando Correa Luna]](https://flyingmag1.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/FLY0126_3.0-Used-Aircraft-Guide-3.jpeg?width=961)
Just as with cars, the markets for both new and used aircraft have risen well beyond the rate of inflation. Today you are not likely to find an airworthy J-3 for the $22,000 mentioned above.After the low point in the 1970s, pilots increasingly began to regard J-3s more as valuable antiques or collectibles and less as outdated used airplanes. Prices rose steadily through the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. During the last several years, prices have risen faster, especially for meticulously restored examples and largely original aircraft that are well-kept and flown regularly.
Numbers are all over the map. It is easy to find nice J-3s in the $50,000 to $60,000 range, which would have been unbelievable just a few years ago. There certainly are some six-digit J-3s plying the skies. If you are looking for a simple, unadorned version for straightforward, low and slow flying, there are still bargains to be found.
So, How Does It Fly?
My first opportunity to fly a J-3 came a decade ago when my instructor, Rich Bartlett, based at Sussex Airport (KFWN) in New Jersey finished restoring one that he had saved from a slow death due to neglect.
“It was a basket case,” Bartlett told me. Over several years he rebuilt the old bird piece by piece and eventually used it as a tailwheel trainer in our flying club.
Like many J-3s, Bartlett’s airplane had an upgraded engine–a 100 hp Continental O-200 compared with the original 65 hp unit. With all that extra power the J-3 seemed to jump off the runway. Give it any headwind and the tailwheel and mains appeared to rise together as soon as you opened the throttle. Once in the air, though, low and slow were the order of the day. Extra power does not readily translate to extra speed in an airplane with struts, control cables and other drag inducers hanging in the breeze.
Many Cubs have also been boosted with 85 hp engines and received other modifications from bush-style wheels to full electrical systems and modern avionics. Recently, though, I have noticed more pilots flying or seeking original 65 hp versions of the J-3 because they want to capture the same sensations that student pilots of the 1930s and 1940s experienced. One such sensation has to do with the need to thoughtfully manage the aircraft’s limited energy. If you can do that successfully, the J-3 will reward you with smooth, intuitive and forgiving handling that is an absolute pleasure.
Pilots will always have (and share) their individual preferences, but I think flying solo in a J-3 without any modern extras is the way to go. It is OK to bring your tablet with ForeFlight installed, but only in case of an emergency. Otherwise keep it closed and enjoy the scenery.
If there is a figurative elephant in the room, it might be the J-3’s long wing and enormous ailerons, which should bring two words to mind—adverse yaw. It is not worth trying to turn a J-3 with the ailerons and elevator. Coordination is key when changing direction in any Cub, and the J-3 seems especially eager to teach new pilots the ways of the rudder.
Folks transitioning from high-performance aircraft might find the J-3 difficult or downright ornery. You have to remember that it does not have enough power to mask the mistakes that we make while learning how to fly it properly. If you have patience and learn to follow its lead, you will soon know the joy of truly harmonious flying.

This column first appeared in the January Issue 966 of the FLYING print edition.