To understand the significance of the J-3 Cub, look all the way back to Piper’s Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, heyday, where William T. Piper was rightly seen as a visionary. But no one could have imagined how enduring that vision would be, to the extent that over 80 years later, multiple companies are building brand-new Cub clones that clearly trade on the mystique of the old yellow classic. Two that are front and center in the market are Legend Aircraft and CubCrafters. We think both companies nail the quality and support and offer good value with their modern copies.
In a way it’s kind of depressing, because indirectly it signifies that a big chunk of the generation that made the real J-3 what it is has been displaced by younger folks who simply don’t understand the Cub romance and nostalgia.