00:00 - I am Ron Dremel, president of the Piper Aviation Museum

00:03 - in Lockhaven, Pennsylvania, birthplace of Piper Aircraft,

00:07 - and we are located in the former engineering building of Piper,

00:11 - where we house over 22 Piper airplanes, many one of a kind,

00:16 - and we promote the history and legacy of Piper Aircraft

00:20 - and its founding family.

00:23 - Mr. Piper was from Bradford, Pennsylvania.

00:26 - He was a Harvard graduate, fought in the Spanish-American War.

00:30 - We won quite a few medals

00:32 - later on, invested in Taylor Brothers Aircraft Company

00:35 - when it was lured to Bradford, Pennsylvania.

00:37 - Later, that company went bankrupt.

00:40 - Mr. Piper bought the assets of Taylor Brothers Aircraft.

00:43 - Company for about $800 at the bankruptcy sale

00:46 - for Taylor Aircraft Company, and gave half that company back to Mr.

00:50 - Taylor and, started manufacturing airplanes again in Bradford, Pennsylvania.

00:56 - In 1937, there was a fire in Bradford.

00:58 - The plant burned to the ground and they went looking for a place

01:02 - to relocate and found the abandoned silk mill in Lockhaven,

01:05 - relocated in Lockhaven, still as Taylor Aircraft Company.

01:09 - And a few months later Mr.

01:11 - Piper renamed a company Piper Aircraft.

01:15 - Mr. Piper wanted an inexpensive, easy to fly airplane.

01:18 - He developed the assembly line process for the Cub

01:21 - and became known as the Henry Ford of General Aviation, and later

01:26 - on, at the age of 50, he became a licensed pilot and in 1954

01:30 - became the oldest man in the United States to get a multi-engine

01:34 - pilot's license.

01:37 - So the original Cub was the J2,

01:40 - which was an improvement on the Taylor Cub, designed by Walter Jimeno.

01:45 - Mr. Piper's engineer.

01:47 - And, that plane was built in Bradford, Pennsylvania, right up

01:51 - until the plant burned with the fire and then moved to Lockhaven.

01:55 - They still build a few J tos in Lockhaven

01:57 - and till they converted over to the improved J-3,

02:02 - which everyone knows as the yellow Cub.

02:07 - The J-3,

02:08 - which is a state airplane of Pennsylvania, is the plane that, as

02:13 - everyone knows, as the Piper Cub,

02:16 - they built just shy of 20,000 cubs in a ten year

02:20 - period, from the 1937 to 1947, including the,

02:26 - the J3 and the L4, which was the military version of the Cub.

02:31 - A little side note.

02:32 - Over 75% of the World War Two pilots had their initial flight

02:37 - training in a Piper Cup, either a J-3 or

02:41 - an I for grasshopper.

02:44 - So up until 1954,

02:45 - all of the Piper planes were tube and fabric airplanes, kind of old technology.

02:50 - And Piper needed to move into the modern error.

02:53 - So their first all metal airplane was the Piper Apache,

02:56 - a twin engine airplane, followed by the Piper Comanche,

03:01 - which first flew in 1956 and was manufactured up until 1972,

03:06 - when the flood of the Susquehanna destroyed the tooling.

03:10 - But just, brought the Piper into the modern era with all metal airplanes.

03:18 - We are located

03:18 - in the former engineering building of Piper Aircraft

03:21 - next door to us, which is now county offices,

03:24 - was the administrative building for Piper, the corporate headquarters.

03:28 - And the plant was behind us

03:29 - across Bald Eagle Street, where they did all of their manufacturing.

03:33 - That building is currently being used as a warehouse.

03:38 - During the height of general aviation in the late 50s

03:41 - 1958, Piper built a second plant in Vero Beach, Florida.

03:46 - Followed after that with another plant in Lakeland, Florida.

03:49 - They were building planes in all three locations, right

03:53 - up until 1984, when there was a downturn in general aviation.

03:58 - Lear Sigler, the owner at the time, consolidated the Lockhaven facility

04:03 - into the Vero Beach plant and a year later closed the Lakeland plant and everything

04:07 - was consolidated at Vero Beach, Florida, where they're still located today.

04:13 - Here we have the.

04:14 - L4 grasshopper, which was the military version of the J-3.

04:17 - Cub built during the war years from 42 to 44.

04:21 - This plane was used as an aerial jeep.

04:24 - Eisenhower flew in one patent, flew and won.

04:26 - Even Winston Churchill flew in an elephant. Grasshopper.

04:29 - It was used as an air ambulance long before helicopters.

04:33 - It was used for bomb spotting.

04:35 - The poor pilot would circle around a couple hundred feet off the ground

04:38 - and radio back. Where to put that missile?

04:40 - Or within 1 or 2 bombs. They were right on target.

04:42 - So the Germans knew when they saw a cub

04:43 - buzzing around overhead, they were in trouble.

04:45 - It was used for reconnaissance.

04:48 - There was a fellow major, Charles Carpenter went out looking for tanks,

04:51 - and he got a little upset because people weren't

04:53 - doing anything about the tanks he found.

04:55 - So he took it upon himself to strap a couple of bazookas to his wing.

04:58 - And he's actually credited

04:59 - with knocking out 13 cubs, became known as Bazooka Charlie.

05:03 - And, over here we

05:04 - have the, Piper vagabond built after the war.

05:08 - This plane was actually designed by accountants, not engineers.

05:12 - After the war, the market was flooded with

05:15 - planes, and, Piper went into bankruptcy.

05:18 - A lot of manufacturers went out of business.

05:20 - The bank sent in a fella to take over the company, and, they

05:24 - they decided that they needed to build a cheap,

05:26 - inexpensive plane to use up all the parts that were in the bins.

05:29 - They shortened up the wing, took a few ribs out of the wing.

05:32 - This became what's known as the Piper Short Wings.

05:35 - They sold it for about $875, sold a pile of them,

05:40 - used up all their parts, got them out of bankruptcy,

05:42 - and this became the first of what's known as the Piper short wing airplanes.

05:49 - As I stated before,

05:50 - the Piper Aviation Museum houses over 22 aircraft and above me.

05:55 - We have a J2, the very first of the Cubs, and behind me the J-3,

06:01 - the cub that everybody thinks of when they say a, Piper Cub.

06:07 - So the J2 Cub was the original design by Walter Gambino.

06:10 - The improvement on the Taylor Cub made it easier

06:14 - to fly, easier to land than the original design.

06:17 - It was manufactured, first in Bradford, and then when they moved to Lockhaven

06:22 - and then the J-3 Cub had many improvements, had a tail wheel,

06:26 - the J2 had a skid, put brakes on the J3,

06:29 - there were no brakes on the J2 and a little more powerful engine.

06:33 - And a few other improvements that, just made it a genuinely nice airplane to fly.

06:40 - So we talked

06:41 - about the vagabond, the first of the short wing planes.

06:44 - That was a two seater, very inexpensive airplane.

06:47 - That became the Clipper, later the tri pacer, all tail wheel airplanes.

06:52 - And in 1953, Piper put the nose wheel on and developed

06:56 - the tri pacer nose wheel as an easier airplane to land.

07:00 - This is a 1958 tri pacer.

07:02 - We do fly this airplane. We use it for young eagle rides.

07:05 - And, this airplane was made up until the late 50s.

07:09 - And then, the last of the tri pacers was the Piper Colt.

07:37 - And. Here we have a Piper Apache.

07:53 - The Apache, first built in 1954, was the first

07:55 - all metal airplane developed by Piper Aircraft.

07:59 - It moved Piper into the modern era.

08:02 - This happens to be a 1962 model with 235 horsepower on each side.

08:07 - The original Apache had 150 horsepower on each side, but this is the plane

08:11 - that got Piper into the modern era with all metal construction.

08:17 - Above me is the,

08:18 - J4 Cub, built from 1938 until 1942, a larger,

08:23 - more luxurious version of the Piper Cub with side by side seating and,

08:29 - it had a full interior, as I say, much more luxurious.

08:32 - Here we have a pressurized Aztek.

08:35 - Piper built thousands of Aztecs here in Lockhaven,

08:38 - but, they, experimented with pressurization,

08:42 - which allows the pilot to fly higher, without having to wear an oxygen mask.

08:48 - Never went into production.

08:49 - So this is also a one of a kind prototype.

08:51 - One of the many one of a kind airplanes we have here in the museum.

08:57 - Here we have a PA 12 super cruiser known as the City of Angels.

09:01 - Is one of two airplanes to fly around the world in 1947,

09:04 - the sister ship to this plane is hanging in a Smithsonian Institute in, Dallas.

09:11 - 1947.

09:11 - It took them four months, but they flew around the world

09:14 - with just basic navigation and some extra fuel tanks.

09:20 - Here we have the latest addition

09:21 - to our airplane collection, the PA 47 Piper Jet.

09:25 - The, PA 47 was a proof of concept airplane built by Piper in 2008.

09:30 - First flew in 2008.

09:32 - When they decided to get into the very late jet business.

09:36 - It did prove successful as far as meeting all the criteria.

09:41 - 360 night cruise speed, the range, the useful load, all what they hoped for.

09:47 - But the market turned into three years and Piper canceled the program

09:51 - when they realized the tens of millions of dollars it would take to certify it.

09:54 - And the market was just no longer there.

09:57 - Thank you for joining us

09:59 - today on our tour of the Piper Aviation Museum,

10:02 - where we feature the history and legacy of Piper Aircraft

10:05 - and its founding family, one of the big three of general aviation.

10:09 - We are open Wednesday through Friday from 9

10:12 - to 4, Saturday 10 to 4, and Sunday noon to four.

10:16 - For more information, visit us at Piper museum.com.