Information in English below

Almennur fróðleikur um Piper Cub flugvélar:

Piper Cub er ein af frægustu flugvéla tegundum allra tíma. Piper flugvéla verksmiðjurnar hófu framleiðslu á henni árið 1937, en vélin var endubætt útgáfa af eldri gerðum Piper flugvéla sem fór í framleiðslu árið 1930 sem Taylor E-2 og Piper J-2 sem fór í framleiðslu árið 1936. Hugsjón William Piper, forstjóra Piper verksmiðjunnar, var að framleiða ódýra flugvél sem allir áttu að geta keypt, nokkurskonar Ford T loftsins. Hann setti sér það markmið að vélarnar kostuðu ekki meira en 1000 dollara, og tókst honum að framleiða vélarnar á því verði til að byrja með en neyddist svo til að hækka verðið þegar frá leið. Piper Cub vélarnar náðu fljótt tölverðum vinsældum hjá flugskólum og einkaaðilum. Þegar seinni heimsstyrjöldin braust út, var borgaralegir flugskólar fengnir til að kenna herflugmönnum að fljúga (kallað Civilian Pilot Training Program) og voru Piper Cub flugvélar mikið notað af þessum skólum gegnum allt stríðið og í stríðslok er talið að allt að 80 prósent af þeim flugmönnum sem þjálfaðir voru af borgaralegum flugskólum hafi fengið grunn þjálfun sína á Piper Cub.

Árið 1941 hélt ameríski herinn heræfingar í Flórída þar sem líkt var eftir mikill orrustu á jörðu niðri. Herinn var með sínar eigin könnunarvélar til að fljúga yfir vígvellinum til að safna upplýsingum og leiðbeina stórskotaliði. Einhverjum datt í hug að það væri gaman að taka nokkrar léttar einkaflugvélar með til að sjá hvernig þær stæðu sig í bardaga. Öllum til mikillar furðu stóðu einkaflugvélarnar sig betur heldur en herflugvélarnar, sem varð til þess að ameríski herinn pantaði mikið magn af þessum vélum og notað sem könnunarflugvélar yfir vígvöllum og til þess að leiðbeina stórskotaliði. Þannig varð til Piper L-4 sem var nánast óbreyttur Cub að öðru leiti en því að rúðurnar voru mun stærri og náðu nokkuð aftur eftir skrokknum. Einnig var sett í vélarnar talstöðvar og önnur tæki til hernaðar. Piper Cub barðist á öllum vígstöðvum seinni heimsstyrjaldarinnar sem Piper L-4, og var gríðarlega öflugt vopn í höndum vanra manna. Vélarnar voru notaðar þannig, að þær flugu lágt og hægt yfir vígvellinum og leituðu að földum fallbyssum eða skriðdrekum sem lágu í launsátri. Þegar flugmaðurinn sá eitthvað sem honum þótti grunsamlegt, þá notaði hann talstöð til að beina skothríð frá stórskotaliði á svæðið og fylgdist svo með hvar skotinn lenntu og leiðrétti miðið hjá stórskotaliðinu þar til skotin lenntu akkúrat þar sem þau áttu að lenda. Í Evrópu voru þjóðverjar síður en svo hrifnir af Cub-num og sagt er að þeir hafi lagt meira upp úr því að skjóta niður Piper Cub en nokkra aðra flugvél, sagt er að hermenn sem náðu að skjóta niður Cub hafi fengið viku frí og kassa af Wiskey! Sumum af flugmönnum L-4 véla fannst agalegt að geta ekki skotið til baka á þjóðverjanna, og nokkrir breyttu vélum sínum þannig að þeir hengdu 6 bazooka á vængstífurnar (þrjár hvoru megin). Sá þekktasti er sennilega „Bazooka“ Charlie, en hann náði að eyðileggja að minnsta kosti 6 þýska skriðdreka með þessu furðuvopni sínu.

Einn furðulegasti loftbardagi seinni heimsstyrjaldarinnar, og jafnframt einn sá síðasti, er þegar Piper Cub skaut niður þýska Fieseler Storch könnunar vél í maí 1945!!    Piper Cub vélin var á venjubundnu eftirlitsflugi, þegar flugmaðurinn og aðstoðarmaður hans tóku eftir Storch sem var að reyna að læðast í burt af vígvellinum fljúgandi lágt yfir skógi. Þeir komust uppfyrir Storch-inn án þess að þjóðverjarnir yrðu þeirra varir, opnuðu hurðina á hliðinni og báðir tæmdu magasínið á Colt .45 skammbyssunni sinni á þjóðverjana.   Ekki er vitað hvað þeir hittu, en þjóðverjarnir sáu þann kost vænstan að lenda í skógarrjóðri þar sem vélin eyðilagðist í lendingunni!

Á tíu ára tímabili, frá 1937 til 1947 voru framleiddar rúmlega 19.000 vélar, þar af um það bil 5700 af L-4 herflugvélinni. Til að gera sér í hugarlund hvað þetta eru stórar tölur, þá má geta þess að árið 1940 voru framleiddar um það bil 3000 Cub-ar og þegar framleiðslan stóð sem hæðst, þá komu vélarnar af framleiðslulínunni, full smíðaðar, með 20 mínótna millibili!
 

     Information in English:

The aircraft TF-KAS:

TF-KAS rolled of the Piper production line in Ponca City, Oklahoma, on the 21^st of December 1946. It was test flown at the factory and then disassembled again to be put in wooden box for transport to Iceland. This aircraft was the fifth Cub imported to Iceland, all of them being bought new from the factory. When it arrived in Iceland, it was reassembled by the engineering company Flugvirkinn hf and registered on the 9^th of May 1947 to Vélflugdeild Svifflugfélags Íslands. At that time, Vélflugdeild was one of the few schools in Iceland teaching powered flight. Training aircraft of the day had “interesting” lives involving some prangs along the way, and in almost 20 years as a training aircraft, TF-KAS saw some prangs.    It had a serious crash at Skogar in 1954, while the pilot was not hurt, the aircraft was in a bad state. It took almost three years to repair, and once repaired it was sold to Þytur Flying School, being registered to them on the 30^th of May 1957. The aircraft was used for instruction at that flying school and on the 29^th of May 1960 it was badly damaged in a crash during take off from Hofsstadir. It was repaired and continued to be used for instruction until the 12^th of October 1965, when it was badly damaged during a forced landing just outside Reykjavik. Once again, it was repaired and on the completion of the repairs it was sold to Isleifur Gudmannsson in 1967. Mr. Gudmannsson based the aircraft at the airfield of Vík í Mýrdal until 1994 when it was sold to Hákon Magnússon. 

By 1998 it was time for a complete restoration of the airframe, and Einar Páll Einarsson was entrusted with the job. During the rebuild it was changed to PA-11 Cub Special specs, with the inclusion of a more powerful engine and a fully enclosed cowling. The aircraft made it´s first post-restoration flight in July 2007.  It´s owner now is Sigurdur Halldorsson, and the aircraft is based at Tungubakkar airfield. 

General Piper Cub information:

The Piper Cub is one of the most famous aircraft types of all time. The Piper Aircraft Corporation started it´s production in 1937, and it was a development of earlier aircraft made by that company. The Piper Cub can trace it´s roots all the way back to 1930 when the Taylor E-2 was put into production through the Piper J-2 of 1936. William Piper, the CEO of Piper Aircraft Corporation, had the vision of producing a cheap aircraft that everyone could buy and operate, a kind of Ford T of the air. William´s aim was to sell the aircraft for 1000 dollars, or less, and he was able to do that at the start, but then he had to increase the price. The Piper Cub quickly established itself as a popular aircraft with both private pilots and flight schools. At the outbreak of war civilans flight schools were tasked with training pilots for the airforce under a scheme known as the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP for short), and Piper Cubs were extensively used for this training through out the war. It has been estimated that about 80% of all the pilots trained under the CPTP received their initial training on the Piper Cub.

In 1941 the U.S. Army held wargames in Florida that were to have great effect on the use of the Cub in wartime. The wargames were to simulate a large ground battle with aerial support from all kinds of aircraft, including the army´s own observation aircraft to do tactical observation work and to direct artillery fire. Some bright spark in the army, thought it would be a good idea to bring along a few civilian light aircraft, to see how they stood up to combat situations. To their great surprise, the civilian light planes out-performed the military types in the observation role. That lead to an order from the army for a slightly modified Piper Cub, called in military paralance the Piper L-4. The only visible difference from a civilian Cub was the inclusion of a extended glazing of the cockpit. The Piper Cub went on to fight in all theaters of the second world war, and was a formidable weapon in the hands of experinced crews. A typical mission profile for the Cub would be to fly low and slow over the battlefields looking for anything suspicious, like hidden artillery pieces and tanks. If the crew (a pilot and observer) saw anything suspicious they would radio a nearby artillery post and direct the fire of the artillery to the spot. They would then watch the fall of the shells being fired and radio back corrections to get the shells exactly on target.   In the European Theater of war the Germans were less than happy with the Piper Cub, and the storie goes that they valued a shot down Cub more than most other other aircraft even to the extend of offering anyone who shot down a Piper Cub a weeks leave and a case of Wiskey! Whether the story is true or not, is unverified!

One of the strangest aerial combat of the second world war, and also one of the last one, took place in May 1945 and involved a Piper Cub and a German Fieseler Storch. The Storch was flying at treetop level when spotted by the Cub crew, who managed to get above it. They opened the side door of the Cub and both emptied the magazine of their Colt .45 service pistol in the general direction of the Storch. They must have hit something, as the the Storch attemted to land in a clearing in the woods and was destroyed in the process.

After the second world war, Piper continued to produce the Cub in unchanged form until 1947. After 1947 some changes were made to the basic airframe and it continued in production as the Piper Super Cub until 1981. After the official production of the Super Cub ended, various companies have been producing look-a-like or replica aircraft based on the Cub and Super Cub and the continue to sell relatively well.

In the ten year period, from 1937 to 1947, Piper produced roughly 19.000 Cubs including about 5700 examples of the L-4 variant. Just to get an idea of the tremendous output of the factory, in  1940 3000  1940 3000 Cubs were produced, and that was not the highest output. At the hight of production, there was one complete aircraft rolling of the prodution line every 20 minutes!