The Clipped Wing Cub Story
The classic Piper J-3 Cub has been America's favorite light plane for over 40 years. More than 20,000 of them were built between
1937 and 1947 for both civilian and military use. By 1980, the number of still airworthy J-3's in the U.S. had declined to
approximately 3,600. One of these bears registration N32629 and is recognized worldwide as Hazel Sig's Clipped Wing Cub.
N32629 was manufactured in 1941 at the Piper factory in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania as a standard Piper J-3C-65 Cub, serial
number 5498. Not much is known about the first 12 years of its life. The first logged entry was made on February 12, 1953 by a
flier in Frederick, Oklahoma. He said; "The previous owner did not comply with CAR. 43·22 on the maintenance of aircraft
records. The aircraft log, if maintained, has been lost or destroyed. From known information, the aircraft has been estimated to
have approximately 4000 hours total time". With that many hours of flight time accumulated in just 12 years, it's pretty safe to
assume that N32629 was used for flight training during the 1940's. The Cub was sold in 1955 to an A & E mechanic who moved it
to Mount Pleasant, Iowa. It remained in Iowa through the 1960's, being used by several different owners for pleasure flying.
Hazel Sig, president of SIG MFG. CO.,
purchased N32629 in January of 1968. She
flew the J-3 in its standard form through the
spring and summer of that year. The log books
showed that the Cub had been covered with
ceconite and painted with enamel in 1965, just
three years before Hazel bought it. The
ceconite and enamel turned out to be a bad
combination. After the simplest aerobatics, the
enamel had begun to crack and loosen from the
fabric in several places. It was soon obvious
that the Cub was going to need recovering
again in the near future, much sooner than
should have been the case.
Hazel Sig standing beside her newly acquired standard Piper J-3 Cub at Sig
Field Montezuma, January 1968. At that time, N32629 was painted cub yellow
with red trim and black registration numbers. It was manufactured in 1941.
