a virtual j-3 cub

This J-3 Cub can be flown in the Google Earth Flight Simulator. Download the file, J-3 Cub.kmz from my web site. The instructions for installing and using the plane's image are the same as for the T-6 Texan as explained in the first post on this blog. (The prop is not animated on the J-3 as it is on the T-6.)



My J-3 Cub is a card model. If you would like to build one, the pattern is available as a two-page pdf file which can be downloaded from the New Mexico Aerospace Education web site. The model's parts print out nicely, and can then be easily cut out and assembled in a couple hours.



Here are the specs for the J-3 from Wikipedia:

General characteristics
Crew: one pilot
Capacity: one passenger
Length: 22 ft 5 in (6.83 m)
Wingspan: 35 ft 3 in (10.74 m)
Height: 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
Wing area: 178.5 ft² (16.58 m²)
Empty weight: 765 lb (345 kg)
Useful load: 455 lb (205 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 1,220 lb (550 kg)
Powerplant: 1× Continental A-65-8 air-cooled flat four, 65 hp (48 kW) at 2,350 rpm
Performance
Maximum speed: 76 kn (87 mph, 140 km/h)
Cruise speed: 65 kn (75 mph, 121 km/h)
Range: 191 NM (220 mi, 354 km)
Service ceiling: 11,500 ft (3,500 m)
Rate of climb: 450 ft/min (2.3 m/s)
Wing loading: 6.84 lb/ft² (33.4 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 18.75 lb/hp (11.35 kg/kW)

In the interest of an authentic flight in Google Earth's simulator, you'll want to select the slower SR22 configuration, and maybe also cut back the throttle by about half.

If you happen to come upon an actual J-3 Cub gathering dust in your grandfather's barn, you can download Piper's detailed manual on how to fly the plane. In the 1940s you would have had to pay a dime for the manual, but thanks to the Internet you can have it free. As for the plane, if your granddad's barn doesn't have one, you can pick one up on ebay for around $20,000.

first flights

My first plane ride was either in an Aeronca or a Piper J-3 Cub; I would have been eight or nine years old at the time. They were both popular planes in the late 1940s. My mother, my grandfather and my stepfather all took flying lessons in those small planes, though they would later move on to the sleeker and faster Cessnas.



The J-3 Cub in the photos was flown in December 2003 at the Centennial celebration of the first Wright Brothers flight. The location was the Santa Teresa, New Mexico air field where I went many times to see and photograph the planes at the War Eagles Air Museum.

The stars of the December 2003 airshow were the big Collings Foundation bombers, but it was great to see the little Cub get into the air. Particularly in the context of the other planes being flown that day, the slow take-off and flight speed attained by the J-3 Cub seemed hard to believe.



That kind of buoyant, low and slow flight is very appealing to me, which probably explains my attraction to the Google Earth Flight Simulator. I'm going to make or acquire a model J-3 sometime soon to insert into the program so that I can recreate something of the experience of flying in that great old classic.


Piper Aircraft Corporation Ad
Popular Science, April 1938, p.117