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CubCrafters LSA Cub: Stunning STOL

As applied to airplanes, the word "performance" has a multi-tiered meaning. Wed guess most pilots think of speed first, then payload or climb and then maybe short or rough field capability. The light sport segment bollixes up the usual logic because none of them are very fast, although they vary in payload and runway capability. On that last point, a new LSA offering from CubCrafters promises to reset the scale on what short takeoff and landing capability means, so much so that there are going to be some envious Super Cub pilots in Alaska drooling over this thing. The airplane is called the Super SportCub and it was unveiled just prior to Sun n Fun. Had it not been for an item in the press announcement, we would have said that this airplane is simply another entry in what is turning out to be just way too many LSAs than the market will ever support. But that one thing was the engine: a 180-HP O-340 four-banger loosely based on Lycomings O-320, but stroked and modified as an experimental engine by Engine Components, Inc. But wait a minute…doesnt the airplane still have to meet the 1320-pound LSA gross weight limit and can it do that with that big engine? It does and, evidently, it can.

Aviation Consumer Staff
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As applied to airplanes, the word “performance” has a multi-tiered meaning. Wed guess most pilots think of speed first, then payload or climb and then maybe short or rough field capability. The light sport segment bollixes up the usual logic because none of them are very fast, although they vary in payload and runway capability.

On that last point, a new LSA offering from CubCrafters promises to reset the scale on what short takeoff and landing capability means, so much so that there are going to be some envious Super Cub pilots in Alaska drooling over this thing.

The airplane is called the Super SportCub and it was unveiled just prior to Sun n Fun. Had it not been for an item in the press announcement, we would have said that this airplane is simply another entry in what is turning out to be just way too many LSAs than the market will ever support. But that one thing was the engine: a 180-HP O-340 four-banger loosely based on Lycomings O-320, but stroked and modified as an experimental engine by Engine Components, Inc. But wait a minute…

doesnt the airplane still have to meet the 1320-pound LSA gross weight limit and can it do that with that big engine? It does and, evidently, it can.

Eternal Cub

CubCrafters Jim Richmond told us at Sun n Fun that the Sport Cub is the best performing Cub hes built and hes been at it for three decades. CubCrafters produces a line of two-seat aircraft-from Super Cub rebuilds to kits to two LSAs-all based on the familiar Piper Cub legacy of a fabric-covered welded steel fuselage and metal-ribbed wings. All of the airplanes have strut-braced wings and bungee damped landing gear and all feature tandem seating.

The Super SportCub follows this design brief…to a point. The basic construction is there, with a welded tubular steel frame and fabric covering everything from the wings to the tail feathers to the control surfaces. But Super Cubs never had to meet the 1320-pound LSA weight limit so CubCrafters has obviously put the entire airplane on the harshest weight diet weve seen in quite some time.

Carbon fiber is evident everywhere, from the spinner, to the cowling, to interior panels and various bits and pieces that might have once been steel are now aluminum. “I ask my vendors if they know how many grams are in an ounce. If they say no, I tell them they need to know,” Richmond told us.

Aviation Consumer Staff