When Mr. Piper Dipped a Toe in the Turbine Waters

The Little Museum That Could

Exterior of the Piper Aviation Museum with a recently-added Tomahawk on display.

I am very fond of the Piper Aviation Museum. Obviously, it does not carry the prestige of the Smithsonian. It is not nearly so well funded as institutions memorializing other aircraft manufacturers like the Beechcraft Heritage Museum in Tullahoma, TN. It is most certainly no Air Zoo, with Smithsonian affiliate status earned through exquisite vintage aircraft restoration. Rather, I admire the Piper Aviation Museum because it has none of those things going for it. What it has in its corner are a meaningful setting (the Piper engineering building at the former Lock Haven, PA headquarters), a dedicated group of grass roots volunteers, and a supportive community of Piper enthusiasts (including Piper itself -- we'll get to that) that have generously donated aircraft to the museum. The museum has grown substantially since my first visit in 2013 to the extent that aircraft display space is now becoming a challenge. This is a good problem to have and speaks to a successful museum organization.

A portion of the WFC fleet parked in front of the Piper Aviation Museum.

On June 1, nine people from the Williamson-Sodus Airport / Williamson Flying Club arrived in six airplanes to explore the museum. It was the club's first visit to Lock Haven since 2018 (an excursion that I could not join). Not only did we have a great visit, but there was a surprise waiting for us on the main display floor of the museum that day.

Weather Uncertainty and Multiple Choice Routing

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
01 Jun 2025	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - LHV (Lock Haven, PA) - SDC	2.9	2991.7

A common theme in pilot conversations around the Williamson-Sodus Airport, from our Chief Instructor through pilots of all experience levels, is the general observation that weather forecasting this year has been terrible. Weather factors for this trip included the always concerning combination of low ceilings and rough terrain over Pennsylvania combined with forecasts for strong, gusty wind. Given the terrain around Lock Haven, descent into the Susquehanna River valley in strong gusts can make for a very unpleasant ride. But we eventually decided to go and it was a good decision.

My previous visit to the Piper Aviation Museum was March of 2023. A synopsis of the Piper Aircraft Corporation is provided in that post, from its founding as the Taylor Brothers Aircraft Manufacturing Company of Rochester, NY to moving to Bradford, PA to a bankruptcy-driven buy-out of the company by investor William T Piper to a devastating fire in Bradford that brought the company to Lock Haven, PA just before introduction of the iconic J-3 Cub.

Running up behind Eight Five X-Ray at the Williamson-Sodus Airport.

We had nine people flying in six airplanes. Patrick and Elizabeth were in the WFC's Archer I, Tom flew his Cherokee 180, Gilead and Paula took Paula's Cherokee 180, I was solo in Warrior 481 (my original passenger, Jonathan, dropped out due to a scheduling conflict), Sam and Zoe helmed their "one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-others" Cessna Skyhawk, and Dan zoomed past all of us in his recently completed RV-8A . At least two thirds of our fleet were Piper appropriate!

A right turn to the lakeshore to facilitate climbing over the clouds.

Although we deemed the ceiling adequate for the journey, pilots used a variety of  tactics to manage it. Tom, Dan, and I all took advantage of the break in the clouds existing over the Lake Ontario shore to climb to 10,500 feet and made the trip VFR over the clouds. Patrick, Elizabeth, Zoe, and Sam stayed below the ceiling in their two airplanes. Paula and Gilead requested a pop-up IFR clearance and flew at an intermediate altitude between those of us up high and the others down low. Personally, I did not want to deal with bumps at the lower altitude (everyone reported that they were not as bad as I expected) and was concerned about going IFR due to icing (Paula and Gilead did not report experiencing any). In the end, there were no bad choices.

A few miles north of Lock Haven, PA.

Closer to our destination, I found a suitable hole and spiraled down over the desolate and unforgiving forested terrain north of Lock Haven. I expected the gusty wind to create an uncomfortable ride down low, but the turbulence was mild. Even on the approach to runway 27R, despite being made against a gusty headwind rushing over terrain and through a valley, few burbles were hurled at the landing aircraft.

Piper Pilgrims

All four Cherokee derivatives and the lone Cessna parked in front of the Piper Museum. Jokes about the Cessna in our midst were bandied about, but the fact of the matter is that Cherokees were not built in Lock Haven, either; Piper built all Cherokees in Vero Beach, FL. Dan parked his RV on the main ramp at the opposite corner of the airport and stayed aloof from the good-natured Chevy versus Ford style taunting.

The addition of a Piper PA-38 Traumahawk Tomahawk was new since my previous visit. Introduced in 1978 as a two seat trainer meant to compete with the venerable Cessna 150/152 line, the Tomahawk never quite caught on and production only lasted about four years. The "Traumahawk" nickname is reportedly due to some stall/spin quirks, but I have read many opinions over the years indicating that they are generally good airplanes.

A current Piper corporate flag, a gift from Piper Aircraft, waved outside the former Piper engineering building housing the museum. We would soon learn that the company had bestowed an even more precious artifact upon the museum than that flag.

More airplanes recently mounted on poles, this one is a PA-30 Twin Comanche. The final death blow for the Comanche line, both single and twin-engined variants, was delivered by Hurricane Agnes in 1972 when the storm roused the Susquehanna River to overrun its banks and flood out the Piper factory. Much of the tooling for the Aztec, Navajo, and Comanche aircraft was destroyed in the 1972 flood and never recreated.

Off to Market

From the museum, we walked into town for lunch.

I've been coming to Fox's Market House for years and have never been disappointed.

A model Piper J-3 Cub hanging from the ceiling bestowed a particular sense of place on Fox's Market House.

Likewise, a payphone so ancient that it looked old even to me conveys a particular sense of time.

We enjoyed an excellent lunch at Fox's with service from the friendly staff. From left to right are me, Tom, Gilead, Elizabeth, Paula, Dan, Patrick, Zoe, and Sam. After lunch, an invigorating one mile walk due east returned us to the Piper Aviation Museum.

In the Footsteps of Jamouneau and Weick

5/6 of the WFC fleet parked outside the Piper Aviation Museum.

Cigarettes might seem an odd thing to find in an airplane museum, but a copromotion in the early 1940s between Piper and the manufacturer of Wings cigarettes led to giveaways of Piper J-3 Cubs during the weekly "Wings of Destiny" radio program. World War II brought an end to the promotion when Piper redirected all manufacturing to support the war effort.

A key example of a militarized Piper was the L-4 Grasshopper used for observation and other liaison tasks on WWII battlefields.

Added since my previous visit, a 1962 PA-23-235 Apache with twin 235 horsepower engines filled a corner of the main display floor. This is the second production Apache 235 ever built.

Kerosene Burner

The surprise of the day came when peering out at the main display floor from the second level of the museum. Among the familiar Pipers stood a newly-acquired one of a kind Piper prototype.

Those who read aviation magazines in the first decade of the 2000s will recognize it right away. At the time, anticipation ran high for the Very Light Jet (VLJ) market segment, personal jets that could be used by private owners or for air taxi operations. Manufacturers hoping to capitalize on the perceived opportunity included Diamond (with the D-Jet), Eclipse (with the 400), Cirrus (with the Vision), and Piper with the Altaire that was colloquially known as the "Piper Jet". Coincident with the Great Recession in 2008, these programs were all shelved except for the Cirrus Vision. The Vision went on to become the first certified single engine civilian jet and that achievement earned it the 2018 Collier Trophy.

Like many of its conceptual contemporaries, the Piper Jet design relied on a single engine. Only one prototype was built and test flown with great fanfare, which is why I recognized the aircraft immediately. It was a big deal in the aviation media of the time and seemed to fuel tremendous excitement.

The Piper Jet prototype has been wasting away on outdoor static display for many years at the Lakeland Linder International Airport in Florida. Suffering from the ravages of weather, the prototype was returned to Piper's main facility in Vero Beach for a new paint job, then donated to the Piper Aviation Museum by Piper. When we saw it, the museum had not yet publicly announced receipt of the aircraft (hence the surprise) and was still working to fully reassemble it.

In case there was any doubt about what we were looking at.

This one of a kind prototype first flew on July 30, 2008.

As suggested by this display, Piper seemed to be all in on the Piper Jet back in the day, which is why the sudden cancellation of the project was so striking.

I wondered how much of the instrument panel reflected the way the aircraft was equipped during its early flight testing. Missing instruments including the copilot airspeed indicator seemed important.

Clearly, the interior of the prototype was not nearly as polished as that of a regular production aircraft.

With addition of the Piper Jet to its collection, the Piper Aviation Museum has added yet another one-of-a-kind prototype (alongside the 1962 fiberglass PA-29 Papoose and the 1942 PT-1 tandem seat military trainer) to tell the story of how Piper Aircraft evolved over the years. To my mind, the evolutionary dead ends are some of the most interesting.

Piper Classics

A J-3 Cub is great on its own, but putting one on skis takes it to the next level! Unless it's summertime and the skis render it virtually useless. There is a time and place for everything.

I have always been a fan of the PA-24 Comanche. As a low wing, four place aircraft, Comanches somewhat resemble Piper Cherokees except that they embody a nuanced elegance that the later Cherokee design lacks. This particular model is special because it is one of only 148 Comanche 400 aircraft built. The "400" refers to the eight cylinder, 400 horsepower Lycoming IO-720 powerplant shoehorned into the cowling that gave this beast a 185 knot (213 mph) cruise speed. While these airplanes have their adherents, poor cooling for the back two cylinders is a known challenge with the design.

Another one-of-a-kind is still under construction, this reproduction single seat PA-8 Skycycle. It has sprouted tailfeathers since my last visit to the museum. The Skycycle was first flown in 1945, but never went into production and no prototype survived to the modern era. This example was a project started by Bob Erdman and donated to the museum by Erdman's family. The museum is endeavoring to complete it.

It's true! The J-3 Cub is the official airplane of the state of Pennsylvania. I earned my tailwheel endorsement in a beautifully-maintained 1946 J-3 Cub and had a wonderful time flying low and slow with the door open, a true stick and rudder experience.

So many Cubs! Two J-3s dressed in classic Cub yellow plus a silver J-2 Cub, the prior iteration tweaked by Walter Jamouneau to create the classic J-3.

A working plane. The PA-25 Pawnee is as a purpose-built agricultural aircraft, but these robustly utilitarian ships are also frequently used to tow gliders aloft. My first time on tow was behind a Pawnee in Boulder, CO.

A simple, utilitarian instrument panel makes perfect sense for a day VFR airplane, but I was forced to wonder how badly something had to go wrong to illuminate that prominent, instrument-sized red light. The chemical hopper was positioned immediately in front of the pilot, so close that bump-outs were needed to accommodate the pilot's toes on the rudder pedals. Note also that, as a taildragger with very different deck angles on the ground versus in flight, the hopper volume markings use different scales representative of both.

From the outside, the position of the hopper helps explain the Pawnee's long snout. This placement makes sense because the hopper should be close enough to the center of gravity that the balance of the airplane is not significantly affected as agricultural chemicals are added or consumed.

However, what really caught my eye was the long, rectangular tube mounted on the right wing labeled "automatic flagman".  Originally, spray pilots relied on human flaggers to mark each completed swath of farmland. After the pilot completed a swath, the flaggers would move their flags to the start of the next swath as a visual reference to the pilot as he completed a 180° wingover turn to spray the next row. Human flaggers -- who were occasionally drenched with agricultural chemicals as a job hazard -- were ultimately replaced by "automatic flagmen" that dispensed a biodegradable cardboard flag at the end of each row with the push of a button on the control stick. Today, the flags are virtual and the entire process is GPS-driven. However, the flying skills required of ag-pilots remain unchanged.

Fun fact: I've always had a place in my heart for the somewhat ungainly PA-22 Tri-Pacer or "flying milk stool". When I first considered an aircraft purchase in 2003, a friend suggested a Tri-Pacer in good condition that was for sale locally. I obviously went a different direction, even though I stayed within the Piper family. When I contemplate a Tri-Pacer, it represents on of those alternative paths in life not taken.

The PA-12 Super Cruiser was essentially a big J-3 Cub that was soloed from the front seat instead of the back and boasted extra horsepower. I earned my seaplane rating in a 1947 version on straight floats. The City of the Angels -- a name I cannot read without hearing the opening harmonies of the Journey song -- was one of two Super Cruisers to circle the world in 1947, the first time that such a feat was accomplished in light, personal aircraft. The partner airplane, City of Washington, rightfully hangs in the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Center.

Piper's earliest foray into low wing aircraft was not the Apache (1954) or Comanche (1958), though they were Piper's first production low wing aircraft. Rather, the sole 1942 PT-1 prototype was Piper's first low wing build, a tandem two seater intended to meet military primary and intermediate training needs. No further PT-1s were produced, but the practical lessons learned in building a low wing aircraft were undoubtedly parlayed into the Comanches and Cherokees that ultimately followed.

After breaking away from Piper, Gilbert Taylor was making a killing selling a Taylorcraft configured with side-by-side seating. In an effort to keep up, Piper introduced the side-by-side J-4 Cub Coupe in 1938. 

Note also the "72 flood" placard high on the door behind the J-4 showing the water line from Hurricane Agnes that changed the trajectory of the Piper Aircraft Corporation.

With one final look at the J-2, J-3, and J-4 Cubs, it was time to get underway for home.

In using the third floor bathroom, I became curious about how the rest of the space was used. The third floor of the museum included what appeared to be an event space as well as a yoga studio, something that I did not expect to find in the Piper Aviation Museum. It likely would have puzzled the chain smoking engineers (at the risk of playing too much into stereotypes) once employed in that building.

Through the Aerial Plane Wash

I spent more time nerding out at the Piper Aviation Museum than the rest of my cohort and I was the last to leave the museum.

As I taxied to the opposite corner to the airport for departure, I passed Dan in his RV-8A preparing to take flight. 

When I saw this ag-plane on the ramp, the phrase "crop duster on steroids" came to mind. What also stood out to me was that, despite the sleek, strutless airframe and the turboprop engine in the nose, the low wing configuration with a single, high visibility pilot seat was unchanged from venerable ag-plane designs from decades ago like the Pawnee.

We had some spotty rain showers to contend with on the way home and Rochester ATC was highly engaged in helping the group pick through weather. 

Recommendation

I love supporting the Piper Aviation Museum, it really is the little museum that could. It has grown substantially in recent years and still has the ability to surprise visitors with artifacts like a previously undisclosed Piper Jet! The Piper Aviation Museum is located at the southwest corner of the William T. Piper Memorial Airport (KLHV) in Lock Haven, PA. Airplane parking is available along the air side of the fence separating the museum and its parking lot from the airport as pictured earlier. Hours are Wednesday - Friday: 9 am - 4 pm, Saturday: 10 am - 4 pm, Sunday: Noon - 4 pm. It is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Adult admission is $12 with discounted entrance fees offered for 55+ and military ($10) or children 7-16 ($5). Children under 7 years of age are free. Guided tours are the most engaging way to explore the museum (I recommend Ed Watson if he's available), but the museum has recently implemented an audio tour that is quite informational. Hardcopy scripts for the audio tour are available for those who would prefer to read over listening. For those in need of a meal while visiting Lock Haven, Fox's Market House is highly recommended.

More / different photos from the museum can be found in my post from 2023.