CubCrafters Top Cub

Building on a legacy

January 10, 2023 By Julie Summers Walker

First there was the Piper J–3 Cub. Introduced in the 1930s, the sprightly little airplane became synonymous with early flight.

Cub Crafters' Top Cub over Yakima, WA

Quick look

Looking to buy?

See how the Top Cub measures up:

How much: $210,000 to $225,000 used (options such as skis and floats extra)
Buy it: If your Indiana Jones spirit needs some excitement and you want to get your fedora out of storage.
Skip it: If you’re a suit-and-tie type who only loves the office…but remember, when they are dying, no one ever says they wish they’d spent more time at work.
Other options: Piper Super Cub, CubCrafters Carbon Cub, American Legend Super Legend HP, historic aircraft such as the J–3 Cub and military L–4 Grasshopper.

Its cheerful propeller face and sunny yellow paint scheme made it the darling of the low and slow crowd. Piper built on its popularity with the Super Cub in 1949. More rugged, tougher, and stronger, the PA–18 took daring pilots into the wilds of Alaska, the backcountry of the west, and mountain wilderness. Then came Jim Richmond. An inventor and airframe and powerplant mechanic, he sold his home heating company in 1980 to invest in renovations to existing Cubs and then to introduce his own version of his favorite airplane. The Top Cub from his Yakima, Washington, company CubCrafters was introduced in 2004. It is a modern iteration of the PA–18 but even more rugged, tougher, and stronger. You can put it on tundra tires and venture into the outback, attach skis and land on the glaciers in Alaska, or strap on some amphibious floats and skim the clear blue waters of the Caribbean. As the CubCrafters advertising slogan for the Top Cub says: “Take off and land where no airplane has dared to go.”

[email protected]