Everyone knows the name Piper Cub; the little lightweight, two-seater airplane born in Bradford in 1930 that is considered to be the most influential aircraft ever produced. William T. Piper is credited with the success of the “Cub” and he has been called the “Henry Ford of Aviation.”
But Piper didn’t invent the “Cub” – a man named C. Gilbert Taylor did — and the story of Taylor’s effort to revolutionize the world of aviation by creating a “plane for every man” is truly remarkable.
Clarence Gilbert Taylor (called “CG” by his family) was born in Rochester, N.Y., in 1898 to Arthur and Clara Taylor. Arthur Taylor had emigrated from England in 1885 and was a skilled machinist and self-taught engineer, qualities that he instilled in his oldest son who turned out to have a knack for all things mechanical.
CG had four sisters, and a brother, Gordon, who would later partner with his brother in creating Taylor Brothers Aircraft. As a small child CG contracted polio which left him with permanent paralysis in his left foot and leg, but that affliction left him with a fierce determination to succeed despite his disability.
When he was 13 years old, CG saw a bi-plane piloted by aviation pioneer Calbraith Perry Rodgers, the first person to cross the United States from coast to coast by airplane. (Side note: Rodger’s flight path took him right over Olean and Salamanca as well). From that moment on, flying fever hit him hard and CG was determined to become a part of the aviation world.
While still in high school, he designed and built his own airplane in the attic of his family home, building each section separately, and then lowering them by rope to the ground for final assembly. But it never flew. World War I was underway in Europe and small engines for planes were unavailable.
He had never actually been in a plane, but CG was determined to somehow hitch a ride in the sky and made several trips to Buffalo pestering pilots to accept a teenage passenger. Finally, one agreed, and at 16 years of age, CG Taylor made his first flight in the cockpit of a Curtiss Jenny biplane.
Graduating from high school in 1917, Taylor worked for a variety of industries, and when World War I ended, Taylor, his father, and brother Gordon joined together to form a Tool, Die, and Specialty company in Rochester. But his dream never died: for the next five years, CG studied aeronautics. He also married Josephine Woodward in 1920.
In April 1926, the two brothers bought and modified a World War I surplus Curtiss JN-4 plane for $750. Taylor also learned to fly. That summer the two brothers barnstormed around northwest New York in their improved “Taylor Jenny,” sometimes earning as much as $400 a day giving rides.
Now, it has been said that timing is everything. C. G. Taylor would agree.
In May 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew from New York to Paris, and suddenly everyone in the United States wanted to learn to fly. The market for personal airplanes exploded. Eager to take advantage, three months later C.G. and Gordon formed the Taylor Brothers Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Rochester and began to design a small, two-seat, high-wing monoplane. And unlike the older biplanes with tandem seating, this new plane seated two occupants beside each other. They called it the “Chummy,” but whether this cute name derived from the fact that two ‘chums’ could now sit together in the cockpit is unknown.
The Chummy was a hit and it created a buzz among the aviation crowd. Gordon Taylor, the more personable of the two brothers, did sales promotions and flight demonstrations but tragically, during one of these demonstrations near Detroit in April 1928, the Chummy crashed, and Gordon was killed.
Saddened by the death of his brother, C.G. continued to build airplanes and make improvements to the Chummy. The new Chummy 2 monoplane had a wingspan of 34 feet, a length of 22’6”, and stood 7’ 6” tall. It weighed 1,643 lbs., had a maximum speed of 110 miles per hour and a cruising speed of 90 mph. It also cost $4,000, a relatively high price at that time. But the stock market was doing great and for many people, money was no object.
It was during the fall of 1928 that advances were made by several Bradford businessmen representing the Board of Commerce to have Taylor move his factory to Bradford.
Taylor was agreeable for several reasons. His establishment in Rochester was rapidly becoming too small to manufacture the anticipated demand and could not fill orders; Bradford had easy access to a flying field (Rochester’s municipal airport was seven miles from the Taylor factory and finished aircraft had to be disassembled, trucked to the airport, reassembled and test flown) and more importantly, Pennsylvania bankers, oilmen and businessmen were willing to fund the move through stock purchases and supported the building of a new factory at the Bradford airport; $50,000 was required. They noted “the company has no appreciable financial resources of its own…but it is well managed. The owners are men of integrity, skilled mechanics and experts in their line of airplane manufacture.” One of their few stipulations was that Taylor would use only Bradford oil products in the new airplanes.
On September 28 the Bradford Era crowed “New Industry Almost Sure. Taylor Aircraft Company Wants to Come.”
The Board of Commerce paid Harri Emery $1,000 for land located “on the crossroads at the local airport, on the southeast side of the old Erie railroad right-of-way, adjacent to the old schoolhouse” and construction of the factory began in early 1929.
Taylor confidently believed that at least 100 Chummys could be built the first year of operation, and production would eventually reach one airplane each day.
He was over optimistic. The factory was slow to completion and production even slower. By summer, investors were becoming skittish, anxious for a return on their money. Of the $50,000 in stock offerings, only $29,000 had been purchased and of that, $20,000 had been used to build the factory and buy machinery. It was not until June that the first Bradford built B-2 Chummy was completed and not until September 7, 1929 that it passed federal inspections and obtained a commercial license. Six weeks later, on October 24th the stock market crashed. The Great Depression had begun. Once, again timing was everything.
The chances of selling a $4,000 airplane vanished. C.G. Taylor struggled on, modifying the Chummy to reduce its cost, and even building a glider, hoping to remain solvent until the Depression ended. By July 1930, it was apparent that the end was near; only six B-2 Chummys had been built and the money was gone.
And then William T. Piper entered the picture. One of the investors, he was a Bradford native and oilman who had been shoring up the company with his own money. A member of the Board of Commerce and on the Taylor Aircraft Board of Directors, Piper knew the problems very well. He attempted to persuade Taylor to reduce the cost of the Chummy, but Taylor stubbornly stood firm. As company treasurer, Piper then realized the solution was for the Taylor Brothers Aircraft Company to declare bankruptcy.
When the sale of the assets was declared, Piper himself bought them, for $761. He continued as treasurer and made C.G. Taylor president and chief engineer. Each owned 50% of the new company, renamed Taylor Aircraft.
But Taylor was no longer in direct control of his company and changes were coming. Piper believed a small, lightweight, inexpensive plane, sold to flying schools, would save the company. Demoralized, Taylor once again designed a new aircraft, the Taylor Cub, E-2, which sold for $1,325 in 1932. Affordable, and easy to fly, the new plane was soon to become a legend in aviation history.
Several tense years passed as Piper and Taylor, always uneasy partners, kept the company going. Each had his own idea on how the business should proceed and they often clashed. Things came to a head in October 1935, when the wing design and other features of the Cub E-2 were secretly modified by a young engineer while Taylor was ill for several weeks. Piper believed that a new appearance would boost sales appeal; Taylor had agreed but gave strict orders not to change the basic configuration. In his absence, that’s exactly what happened.
Both men realized that they could not continue as co-owners. Piper offered to sell his share of the company to Taylor, but C.G. did not have the money. Piper then offered to buy Taylor’s share and made an offer that Taylor could not refuse.
In December 1935, C. Gilbert Taylor left Bradford, but continued to design, build, and fly his own aircraft at various locations for the rest of his life.
The Taylor Aircraft factory caught fire and burned in March 1937; Piper chose to remove the company to Lock Haven and renamed the company Piper Aircraft.
C. G. Taylor died on March 29, 1988 at the age of 89. His greatest fear was that his name would be forgotten as the creator of the Taylor E-2 Cub and near death, requested that his gravestone read “Cub and Taylorcraft Founder.” He is buried in Rochester, N.Y.
