Piper PA-18 Super Cub

Updated: October 2026 – At the gliding site an engine roars up, a small, often yellow high-wing with its nose in the air rolls forward, a rope tightens behind it, and a few seconds later tug and glider hang in the air. Very often the workhorse is a Piper PA-18 Super Cub. Outside Europe it is the bush plane, and in Germany it also has a Bundeswehr (German armed forces) past. Here you’ll learn how to identify it with confidence, which versions exist and where to get it in front of your camera.

What is the Piper Super Cub?

The PA-18 Super Cub is a two-seat, single-engine light aircraft with tailwheel landing gear and a strut-braced high wing. Pilot and passenger sit one behind the other in a narrow cabin. It is built in classic mixed construction: a welded steel-tube fuselage, wings with spars and ribs, all covered in fabric. Mockers call it “rag and tube”; fans appreciate exactly this construction because it is light, rugged and easy to repair.

The manufacturer is Piper Aircraft, originally based in Lock Haven in the US state of Pennsylvania. The Super Cub is a direct descendant of the famous Piper J-3 Cub: via the PA-11 Cub Special, Piper developed a much more powerful aircraft, which started out as the military design PA-19. Only three of those were built; the design then entered series production as the PA-18. The first flight was on November 23, 1949.

Piper built the Super Cub from 1949 to 1983 and, after a pause, once more from 1988 to 1994. In total, 10,326 aircraft were built. You’ll find more on the company’s history on the page about Piper Aircraft.

The three features that are enough to identify it

With small aircraft you determine the type from the wing, landing gear and cabin. On the Super Cub all three are distinctive – you recognize it even when it is circling over the field with a glider in tow.

If the tailwheel, V-struts and tandem cabin all fit, you’re very likely looking at a Cub. Whether it is a Super Cub or another member of the family you settle with the cowling, the flaps and in the end the registration. On small aircraft it is written large on the side of the fuselage. In Germany, single-engine aircraft in this weight class start with D-E – more on that in the article German aircraft registrations and weight classes.

The versions at a glance

Over the long production run Piper offered the Super Cub with different engines. The number after the hyphen stands for the engine power in horsepower.

Version	Engine	Special features
PA-18-95	Continental C-90, 90–95 hp	Lightest version, militarily the L-18C
PA-18-105	Lycoming O-235, 105 hp	Larger horizontal stabilizer, also used as a trainer for the Civil Air Patrol
PA-18-125	Lycoming O-290, 125 hp	With flaps, militarily the L-21A
PA-18-135	Lycoming O-290, 135 hp	Two wing tanks as standard, militarily the L-21B
PA-18-150	Lycoming O-320, 150 hp	From 1954, the best-known and most common version
PA-18A	depending on engine	Crop-duster version with spray or spreader system
PA-18S	depending on engine	Floatplane on floats

The basic 95 hp version still had no flaps; from the PA-18-125 on, flaps were included. That is useful for you as a spotter too: if you see flaps on the inboard trailing edge of the wing, you are very probably looking at one of the more powerful Super Cubs. Many aircraft were later converted and now fly with 160 or 180 hp – the type designation in the registry then no longer tells you everything about the actual condition.

The Super Cub as a tow plane

For gliding clubs the Super Cub has been a first choice for aerotow for decades. The reasons are obvious: a powerful engine meets a light aircraft with a wing that provides plenty of lift. As a result it accelerates quickly with the glider on the rope, lifts off after a short distance and climbs well – with no long paved runway, on ordinary grass. After the release it heads quickly back to the field so that the next tow can start.

Typical for tow Cubs is a tow hitch at the tail, and some also have a device for reeling in the rope before landing. At large gliding sites with competitions or training courses, several tow planes are sometimes in use at the same time, and the Super Cub often shares the work there with motor gliders or the Robin DR400, which is easy to tell apart as a low-wing aircraft.

If you’re interested in gliding yourself, the Super Cub may be the first powered aircraft whose rope you hang on. What the path to the license looks like, you can read at Glider pilot license (SPL). The history of gliding in Germany is shown by the German Gliding Museum on the Wasserkuppe.

The bush plane

Worldwide, the Super Cub earned its reputation above all as a bush plane. In Alaska, Canada and other regions with few roads and many lakes, it has been at work for decades – on floats, skis or with big, soft balloon tires that spotters often call “tundra tires”. With them it lands on sandbars, gravel beaches and snowfields where other aircraft wouldn’t stand a chance. The bush-flying scene cultivates a veritable Super Cub culture, with short takeoff and short landing competitions.

In the US, authorities such as the Alaska State Troopers, the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska and the US Border Patrol also flew Super Cubs. Then there is banner towing: on beaches Super Cubs tow advertising banners behind them, and here too the combination of power and forgiving slow flight counts.

The popularity has given rise to a whole industry. There are numerous conversions with more powerful engines, reinforced landing gear and larger tanks. The US manufacturer CubCrafters offers a modernized, certified development in the Top Cub, and several companies build Super Cub-like aircraft as new designs or kits. For you that means: not every “Cub” at the airfield is an original Piper – the registry gives the answer.

The Super Cub in the Bundeswehr: the L-18C

Militarily the Super Cub got the designations L-18C (with the 95 hp engine) and L-21 (with 125 or 135 hp). The US Army received 838 L-18Cs, some of which went to allied states through military aid programs. The L-21B was renamed U-7A in 1962. Numerous air forces in Europe and beyond flew Super Cubs, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Israel.

The young Luftwaffe of the Bundeswehr also used the L-18C. From 1956 it took over aircraft from American stocks, 39 airworthy examples in all plus one damaged airframe. The Super Cubs were used for basic flight training, that is, the first hours of prospective military pilots. They were equipped with hitches for glider towing. The L-18C was retired at the end of the 1970s; the information varies between 1978 and 1980.

The early aircraft wore serials made of letters and numbers, such as AS+525; later they switched to the numbering system with 96+xx – the museum example in Gatow last ran as 96+20. How the system of Bundeswehr serials works is explained in the article Bundeswehr aircraft serials.

The Super Cub was not the only light aircraft of the Bundeswehr’s early years. For liaison and observation tasks the army and Luftwaffe mainly used the German-built Dornier Do 27 – also a high-wing with a tailwheel, but considerably larger and with a cantilever wing without struts.

Super Cub, J-3 Cub, Cessna or Do 27?

There are more tailwheel high-wings than you’d think, especially at vintage fly-ins. The finder helps you narrow it down.

The hardest distinction remains the one from the J-3 Cub. Both share the basic shape, the folding door and often the yellow livery. Look at the cowling: on many J-3s the cylinder heads stick out of the cowling at the sides, while on the Super Cub the engine is completely enclosed. Flaps are a second clue, because the J-3 has none. However, there are also small-engine Super Cubs without flaps and J-3s that were modified over the decades – in the end the registry decides.

The comparison with the Cessna trainers Cessna 150 and Cessna 172, on the other hand, is easy to win: a nosewheel, one strut per side and side-by-side seats don’t fit a Cub. Low-wing aircraft such as the Piper PA-28 Cherokee are ruled out immediately. For a broader overview, see Recognizing small aircraft.

Where to find the Super Cub

The Super Cub is an aircraft of grass strips. At large commercial airports you practically never see it, but at small fields all the more often.

Place	Chance of a hit	Why
Gliding sites and club fields with gliding	very high	Classic tow plane, in constant use on weekends
Vintage and fly-in events	high	Many lovingly restored Cubs, also in military colors
Airfield festivals	medium	Often tow demonstrations or a static display
Regional airfields with a flight school	medium	Some schools offer tailwheel endorsements
Museums	targeted	For example the L-18C at the Luftwaffe Museum Berlin-Gatow
Major hubs	very low	No room for light traffic without radio and transponder

The best days are weekends with good thermals in spring and summer, when the glider pilots rig early and the tug flies one circuit after another. How to find such fields in the first place is explained in Finding small airfields and gliding sites on maps. The article Airfield festivals in Germany collects event dates, and at the Hahnweide vintage aircraft fly-in Cubs of all generations stand side by side.

Photo tips especially for the Super Cub

The Super Cub is slow, small and often comes very close to you at club fields. That opens up perspectives you never get with airliners.

Before you set up at a club field, if in doubt ask briefly at the control tower or the glider pilots where you may stand. At gliding sites the launch point, winch cable and runway are danger zones – but most clubs are glad to see interested visitors. You’ll find general tips on small-aircraft flying at Spotting general aviation.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

Conclusion

The Piper Super Cub is an aircraft with two faces: in Alaska the rugged bush plane on balloon tires and floats, in Germany the dependable tug at the gliding site – with a chapter of Bundeswehr history as the L-18C. Tailwheel, V-struts and tandem cabin give you the type, cowling and flaps set it apart from the J-3, and the registration confirms it. If you want to collect Super Cubs, head to a club field on a warm weekend rather than to a hub. You can recognize more classics of small-aircraft flying with the guide Recognizing vintage aircraft in the sky.