The Piper J3-Cub

The story of the J-3 began in the late 192Os with C. Gilbert and Gordon Taylor, partners in the very small Taylor Brothers Aircraft Company of Rochester, New York. Onetime barnstormers, the brothers had designed and were attempting to market a two-seat monoplane called the Chummy, when Gordon Taylor was killed in a crash.

Gilbert Taylor, who believed there would be a growing market for light planes, moved in 1929 to Bradford, Pennsylvania, where community leaders were anxious to promote new local industries. The Bradford Board of Commerce provided $5O,OOO to capitalize the new Taylor company, which built five Chummys before the Great Depression put a halt to construction.