A kid in my high school had one. His dad had it restored in California but they rigged the ailerons backwards. He flew it across the country to the other side of the Mississippi River that way so it could be under the Christmas tree. He also ferried a PBY from South America with another friend. While over the Caribbean, the other guy was in the belly working on the hydraulics, one of the engines starts acting up and loosing oil. “Oh we will be fine, we can land on the water. “. My friend in the belly says, “ Have you seen the holes in the bottom?”
The J4 had one problem, the Taylorcraft. That’s why they quit making them. You might want a slightly shorter landing space, but the T outran the USA35B airfoil enough that it was looked at as only a bad blood. More wing will always be able to support more weight. Nothing special about the J 4 wing except it’s bigger.
Don’t read too much into the difference in the physicals. It’s about horsepower. The stretching of cabin, changing the tail, short or long wing are changes, but a lot of it was so it didn’t look like it was the same ole airplane like the other 30,000. How do you make a plane go faster? Bigger engine or less wingspan. After WW2, Piper went into bankruptcy and the judge said they couldn’t make a sheet metal plane until all the chrome molly was used up. They had war production amounts. Took ten years before they ran out. What saved the Cub was love. It would never have continued without it.
Would you be willing to part with them? Peter
