AVIATION: Seeing our recent tidbits regarding the oil and gas industry in the Bradford area, we got a call from a reader who wondered why there was so much talk about oil, but very little about Bradford’s significant contribution to the field of flight.
“Bradford is the founding place of general aviation,” said our caller.
It was a Bradford company that designed the Piper Cub.
In 1928, C.G. Taylor moved his business, Taylor Brothers Aircraft Co., to Bradford after finding investors there who would support their goal of building a larger facility, according to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum website.
However, the company ended up filing for bankruptcy.
An Era article from Jan. 21, 1931, explains, “About two years ago the company came to Bradford and manufactured a two-place monoplane called The Chummy. The expense of selling this ship was high, Piper says, and caused failure of the company.”
W.T. Piper had purchased shares in Taylor Brothers Aircraft Co., and when it went under, he purchased the company’s assets, according to a biography of W.T. Piper by the Piper Flight Museum in Salem, Ind. Feeling that planes built for student instruction were too expensive, he designed the Piper Cub.
The Jan. 21, 1931, edition talked about the potential reorganization of the company.
“If reorganization becomes a fact, it is estimated one plane can be manufactured a day and employment given to 40 men, Piper states,” The Era reported.
“Production probably will be confined to a low weight, low powered airplane called The Cub. This model had been designed and built previous to the failure.
“The Cub is a two-place, high wing monoplane that weighs about four hundred and fifty pounds and that uses less gasoline than a small automobile, according to Piper. The landing speed is less than twenty-five miles an hour, a factor that greatly increases safety, Piper states.”
After a fire in the Bradford plant, the company relocated production to Lock Haven. Around the same time, which was just before World War II, the U.S. government began a civilian pilot training program in preparation for possible war, the museum stated.
The Lock Haven plant was ready just in time to provide for the needs of the pilots in training.
