Taylor J-2

Taylor J-2
Type:	Light aircraft
Design country:	United States
Manufacturer:	Taylor Aircraft Company
First flight:	1935
Production time:	1936 to 1938
Number of pieces:	1207 (including Piper J-2)

The Taylor J-2 Cub is a light aircraft made by the US manufacturer Taylor Aircraft Company in the 1930s. After the takeover by Piper, the model continued to be built as the Piper J-2 Cub until 1938 .

history

development

1938 Piper J-2 Cub built at Fair Oaks Airfield, England, 1965

The J-2 Cub was a further development of the Taylor E-2 Cub designed by Gilbert Taylor , as their sales figures from 1931 to 1935, including their variants F-2, G-2 and H-2, remained rather meager. According to Piper, who was a shareholder in the Taylor Aircraft Company, the E-2 was too complex and therefore too expensive for mass production. He therefore instructed the young engineer Walter Jamouneau , who had been employed at Taylor since 1931 , to constructively redesign the Cub. This happened during a lengthy absence from Taylor due to illness. According to rather dubious reports, Taylor dismissed the three-man development department when he returned and saw the greatly improved J-2 . The very angry Piper is said to have given him an ultimatum in the form: buy me out, or let me buy you out ( buy me up, or I'll buy you up).

Gilbert Taylor finally sold his stake in Piper in 1935, left the Taylor Aircraft Company with a severance payment of three years and started a new venture in Butler, Pennsylvania with the Taylor Young Airplane Corporation . On March 16, 1937, the original Taylor factory in Bradford, Pennsylvania was destroyed by fire, after which Piper resumed production in May 1937 in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania . In November 1937, the company was renamed Piper Aircraft Corporation .

production

In 1936, 515 J-2s were produced by Taylor. In 1937 there were 658 from Taylor and Piper together and in 1938 the production was only 23 copies, since at that time the series production of the Piper J-3 Cub had already started. A number of J-2 cubs were also exported to Europe. In 2009, over 100 Taylor and Piper J-2s were still registered in the US.

In 1936 and 1937, Aircraft Associates in California completed a number of machines known as the Western Cub .

designation

The letter "J" in the type designation did not stand for the name "Jamouneau", as is often described, but was the next variant letter in the Taylor sequence after "H" and the omission of "I" due to the risk of confusion with the Roman numeral.

construction

On the J-2, Taylor used a USA 35-B profile for the rectangular wing. The spars are made of spruce wood , while the ribs are made of 26 Nicral, a nickel-aluminum alloy. The ailerons have a riveted aluminum structure with nine ribs each. Each aileron is 2.78 m long and 0.34 m deep. The 6.84 m long fuselage is made up of four longitudinal beams with a tubular steel frame. Chrome-molybdenum steel and otherwise cheaper carbon steel is used for the front fuselage . Allegedly, 150 linear meters of seamless steel pipes are to be used in every Cub . The tail unit with a span of 2.90 m is also a welded tubular steel construction. Instead of the standard grinding spur, a controllable spur wheel could also be ordered as special equipment.

The entire aircraft was originally covered with Flightex , a light fabric actually intended for gliders. This was followed by a coat of Murphy dope . However, when restoring flying specimens, a thicker fabric and durable paint is usually used.

Compared to the E-2, the J-2 had rounded wing tips and tail surfaces and wider tires. Powered by a 37-hp Continental A-40-3 piston engine, the J-2 appeared in October 1935, after which the type certification was granted on February 14, 1936. From September 1936 the engine was replaced by the 40 hp Continental A-40-4 variant.

variants

While the E-2 was still offered with a number of different engines, only the Continental A-40 was available for the J-2. Taylor sold the open-top version New Silver Cub for $ 858 without a powerplant. With the propeller and motor, the price rose to $ 1,270, replacing the bronze wheel bearings with roller bearings cost an additional $ 10. The closed version was $ 1308 and the Cub Yellow model was $ 1,340. Edo floats for $ 725 and runners for $ 50 were also offered as options.

Technical specifications

Parameter	Data
crew	1
Passengers	1
length	6.84 m
span	10.74 m
height	1.98 m
Wing area	16.54 m²
Takeoff route	38 m
Landing route	31 m
Empty mass	256 kg
Takeoff mass	440 kg
Cruising speed	112 km / h
Top speed	136 km / h
Landing speed	46 km / h
Service ceiling	3600 m
Range	350 km
Engines	a Continental A-40 four-cylinder boxer engine with 38 to 40 hp

See also

• List of aircraft types

literature

• Howard Levy: Taylor-made J-2 . In: Airplane Monthly May 1992, p. 16 f.
• Hellmut Penner, Frank Herzog: Piper Cub , Motorbuch-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-613-03603-1 , pp. 21-27

Web links

Commons : Taylor J-2  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Video of a flight with a 1936-J-2 on youtube.com (accessed October 24, 2014)
• Piper J-2 at the National Air and Space Museum (accessed October 24, 2014)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sample sheet Flightex (accessed on October 25, 2014)