The Papoose Pair A different kind of Cub at AirVenture Budd Davisson 38
SEPTEMBER /OCTOBER 2013
What is it that drives usually sane people to do things that “normal” people would judge to be insane? Or, if not insane, at least much more difficult than a very similar way of doing things. For instance, add the letter “P” to the end of the ever-present J-3 designation, and instantly everything
J-3Ps to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2012. Considering that AirVenture 2012 was the year of the Cub, with more than 150 J-3s gathered on the grounds like Monarch butterflies in migration to honor Cub’s 75th anniversary, it was nearly impossible for any one of the breed to stand out. The J-3Ps, however, with their typical Cub behind-the-firewall appearance, and their anything-but-Cub firewall-forward countenance, were hard to miss. The “What’s that?” factor was enormous. As was the cuteness factor. They were AirVenture 2012 superstars. The period of the Cub’s birth and growth, the last half of the 1930s, was also the period in which the search for the ideal light aircraft engine was underway. Even though the Great Depression had thrown a wet blanket over the economy, the 1930s were still a golden age for aviation, with more development taking place in all parts of the industr y than almost any decade since. Even though bread lines circled the block, the light trainer/personal aircraft market, as represented by the J-3, Taylorcrafts, Luscombes, and their peer group, quite figuratively exploded. Enterprising entrepreneurs become fully aware of that fact and recognized that the need for small, powerful, economical powerPHIL HIGH plants would expand as well. about the concept skyrockets in This gave birth to a wide range complexity. And rarity. And frus- of new engines, all aimed at betration. And, most of all, dedica- coming the darling of the evertion required. All of the foregoing expanding trainer market. applies to Ingrid Zimmer-Galler, We saw ever y thing from Malcolm Van Kirk, Ben Davidson, the tiny, two-cylinder 37-hp and the rest of their happy little Aeronca opposed-twin to the band of Papoosers who brought a flathead, four-cylinder A-40 pair of Lenape Papoose-powered Continentals and O-145 Lycomwww.VintageAircraft.org
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