L-4H Piper Cub

Observation and Liaison Aircraft

Serial No. 43-29832

     The ubiquitous Piper L-4 "Cub" first entered army service in 1941, when it was one of the three commercial light aircraft types selected for evaluation in the artillery observation and liaison roles. The Cub’s good short field performance and ease of maintenance made it an ideal machine to be the standard aircraft for artillery Battalions in the Army Ground Forces. Flown by Army Artillery officers and NCOs, the "Grasshopper" soared above the front lines during WWII to provide artillery coverage for the Infantry. As the first aircraft to be flown by Army Ground Forces pilots, rather than Air Corps pilots, the Piper Cub was the forerunner of the modern U.S. Army’s air arm. Grasshoppers first saw combat in the invasion of North Africa, when three Piper L-4s flew off an aircraft carrier. Piper L-4s were still in service during the early days of the Korean War.

     Accepted by Army on 30 Nov 1943 by the U.S. Army from the manufacturer, Piper Aircraft Corporation, this aircraft was shipped by convoy to England and delivered to Army Ground Forces on 7 April 1944. The aircraft participated in the D-Day invasion and served in the European theater until the end of the war. This aircraft served in the Ninth U.S. Army where it flew 197 combat hours before being shipped back to the U.S.A. at the end of the war. In 1946 the Government sold it to a former GI from Delaware who used this aircraft for civilian flight training.

Note: During the aircraft’s restoration to its original military configuration, a patched bullet hole was discovered on one of steel fuselage tubes testifying to the aircraft’s combat experience.