| PA-11 Cub Special | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Type | Light aircraft |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | Piper Aircraft |
| Status | Production completed |
| Primary user | Private owners |
| Number built | 1,541 [1] |
| History | |
| Manufactured | 1947-1949 |
| Introduction date | 1947 |
| First flight | August 1946 |
| Developed from | Piper J-3 Cub |
| Variants | Piper PA-18 Super Cub |
The Piper PA-11 Cub Special is a later-production variant of the J-3 Cub manufactured by Piper Aircraft.
The PA-11 is a high-wing braced cabin monoplane with a tail-wheel landing gear. The enclosed cabin has two tandem seats. Early PA-11s had a Continental A65-8 engine, while the later ones had the option of a Continental C90-8. [2]
The PA-11 was based on the earlier J-3, but with the engine cowling fully enclosed (as on the earlier J-5), the windshield sloped at a shallower angle, and the fuel tank placed in the port wing root. [2] Both seats were slightly moved back, and solo flying was usually from the front seat.
The prototype and two subsequent pre-production models were built using a modified J-3 fuselage and wings. The prototype first flew in August 1946 followed by the two pre-production aircraft later in 1946. [2]
The first production aircraft was completed at Lock Haven in March 1947 and production continued at Lock Haven until September 1949. A second production line was established at Ponca City between September 1947 and January 1948. [2]
On the early PA-11s, the fuselage was painted with a metallic blue on the lower half the rest being Lock Haven Yellow. The later PA-11s were all yellow with a simple brown stripe.
The PA-11 also formed the basis for the next evolution in the Cub series, the PA-18 Super Cub, which shares many features.
A small number of PA-11s have been modified to use a Tricycle landing gear. [3]
The PA-11 was one of the first aircraft to be used by Piper for experiments with the nose wheel (also known as tricycle gear) configuration. Although its original design is intended to be a tail-dragger, a modification was created to mount a nose wheel. [ citation needed ]
The nose wheel is attached to the two rear engine mounts by y-shaped steel tubes attached to a steel tube with a shaft that slides freely with the wheel. Cables run underneath the belly directly from fixtures on the rudder pedals to the nose wheel shaft. This gave the ability to steer by pivoting the nose wheel shaft with the rudder pedals. The shock system consisted of six circular bungee cords, sometimes four for softer landings, located on either side of the nose wheel shaft to ears on the top tube and the bottom shaft connected to the wheel. [ citation needed ]
For the aircraft to balance properly with the nose wheel, the main gear was flipped around so that the center of balance would move forward. The pilot would sit in the front seat for added stability.[ citation needed ]
A number of Cub Specials have been converted for flight operation using floats.[ citation needed ]
Israel 
Turkey Data from Piper Aircraft and Their Forerunners [3]
General characteristics
Performance
The Piper PA-23, named Apache and later Aztec, is an American four- to six-seat twin-engined light aircraft aimed at the general aviation market. The United States Navy and military forces in other countries also used it in small numbers. Originally designed as the Twin Stinson in the 1950s by the Stinson Aircraft Company, Piper Aircraft manufactured the Apache and a more powerful version, the Aztec, in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s.
The Piper PA-14 Family Cruiser is an American-built small touring aircraft of the late 1940s.
The Piper PA-24 Comanche is an American single-engine, low-wing, all-metal monoplane of semimonocoque construction with tricycle retractable landing gear and four or six seats. The Comanche was designed and built by Piper Aircraft and first flew on May 24, 1956. Together with the PA-30 and PA-39 Twin Comanches, it made up the core of Piper's lineup until 1972, when the production lines for both aircraft were destroyed in the 1972 Lock Haven flood.
The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is Piper Aircraft's most-produced model, with nearly 20,000 built in the United States. Its simplicity, affordability and popularity invokes comparisons to the Ford Model T automobile.
The RA-14 Loisirs was a French two-seat high-wing light touring aircraft designed by Roger Adam shortly after World War II.
The Piper PA-15 Vagabond and PA-17 Vagabond are both two-seat, high-wing, conventional gear light aircraft that were designed for personal use and for flight training and built by Piper Aircraft starting in 1948.
The PA-25 Pawnee is an agricultural aircraft produced by Piper Aircraft between 1959 and 1981. It remains a widely used aircraft in agricultural spraying and is also used as a tow plane, or tug, for launching gliders or for towing banners. In 1988, the design rights and support responsibility were sold to Latino Americana de Aviación of Argentina.
The Piper PA-18 Super Cub is a two-seat, single-engine monoplane. Introduced in 1949 by Piper Aircraft, it was developed from the PA-11 Cub Special, and traces its lineage back through the J-3 Cub to the Taylor E-2 Cub of the 1930s. In close to 40 years of production, over 10,000 were built. Super Cubs are commonly found in roles such as bush flying, banner towing and glider towing.
The Piper J-5 Cub Cruiser was a larger, more powerful version of the basic Piper J-3 Cub. It was designed just two years after the J-3 Cub, and differed by having a wider fuselage with the pilot sitting in the front seat and two passengers sitting in the rear seat. Equipped with a 75-hp Continental engine the plane's cruising speed was 75 mph. Though officially a three-seater, it would be more accurately described as a "two-and-a-half-seater", as two adults would find themselves quite cramped in the wider rear seat. The Cruiser sold for $1,798 when it was first designed.
The Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser is an American three-seat, high wing, single-engine conventional landing gear-equipped light aircraft that was produced by Piper Aircraft between 1946-48. The PA-12 was an upgraded and redesignated Piper J-5.
The Piper J-4 Cub Coupe is a two place side-by-side version of the Piper J-3 that was built between 1938 and 1942 by Piper Aircraft. It was Piper's first model with side-by-side seating.
The Jodel D.11 is a French two-seat monoplane designed and developed by Société Avions Jodel in response to a French government request for a low-wing aircraft for use by the nation's many emerging flying clubs.
The Aeronca Model 7 Champion, commonly known as the "Champ", or "Airknocker", is a single-engine light airplane with a high wing, generally configured with fixed conventional landing gear and tandem seating for two occupants.
The Brochet MB.80 was a two-seat light aircraft developed in France in the early 1950s.
The Piper PA-8 Skycycle was a 1940s American single-seat light aircraft designed and built by Piper Aircraft at their Lock Haven, Pennsylvania plant. Towards the end of 1944 Piper announced a number of aircraft it intended to build after the second world war. One of these was the PWA-8, an aerodynamic test aircraft was built with the name Cub Cycle and it first flew on 27 August 1944 with a small two–cylinder Franklin Engine. The Franklin engine was replaced by a four–cylinder Continental A-40-3 of 37 hp (28 kW); the aircraft first flew with the Continental engine on 12 September 1944. The Skycycle was a fabric-covered mid-wing single-engined single-seat monoplane with a tailwheel landing gear. The fuselage was produced using an auxiliary belly fuel tank as used on the F4U Corsair. The Cub Cycle was scrapped and a similar but new aircraft was built with the name Skycycle, which first flew on 29 January 1945 using the same Continental engine as the Cub Cycle. The aircraft was further modified in 1945 with a four-cylinder 55 hp (41 kW) Lycoming O-145-A2 engine and designated the PA-8 Skycycle. No further examples were built.
The Piper PA-6 Sky Sedan was a 1940s American four-seat light aircraft designed and built in prototype form by Piper Aircraft at its Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, factory.
The Piper PT-1 was a 1940s American two-seat primary training monoplane designed and built by Piper Aircraft at Lock Haven. A low-wing tandem two-seat monoplane, the PT-1 was the first Piper aircraft to have a low-wing. It had a fabric covering over an all-metal fuselage frame and wooden spar wings and tail unit. The PT-1 had a retractable tailwheel landing gear and was powered by a 130 hp (97 kW) Franklin 6AC-2980D engine. No further aircraft were built. A four-seat development was designed as the Piper PWA-6 which did not go into production either.
The Taylor J-2 Cub is an American two-seat light aircraft that was designed and built by the Taylor Aircraft Company. The company became the Piper Aircraft Company and the J-2 was first of a long line of related Piper Cub designs.
The Macchi MB.308, later Aermacchi MB-308, is a light aircraft produced in Italy in the late 1940s.
The Coupé-Aviation JC-01 is the first of a series of very similar designs of two seat, single engine sports aircraft, amateur built from plans in France from 1976. These provided a range of engine sizes and undercarriage layouts, but total production was small.
Media related to Piper PA-11 Cub Special at Wikimedia Commons