• If You Are Having Trouble Logging In with Your Old Username and Password, Please use this Forgot Your Password link to get re-established.
  • Hey! Be sure to login or register!

Black Lightning bolt

kevinbarton1

Registered User
San Antonio, TX
Does anyone have the dimensions of where the black lightning bolt on a Super Cub should be laid out for painting? or is it just an eyeball thing?
 
attachment.php
 
Does anyone have the dimensions of where the black lightning bolt on a Super Cub should be laid out for painting? or is it just an eyeball thing?

Black lightning bolts should never be put on a Super Cub, only J-3.

:pop:
 
Skips 18-90 was red with a black bolt and I always thought it was one of the nicest looking SC ever

Glenn
 
I don't believe the bolt was ever on the SC but only on the Js.
 
Black lightning bolts should never be put on a Super Cub, only J-3.

:pop:

I went to google images and typed in "piper super cub." A slight majority of the yellow cubs had the lightning bolt. Not so with the other colors. To me, a yellow cub without the bolt just doesn't look right! I can't tell you why though!
 
I kinda like this... obviously. Thanks Lou!

5F0F9EFC-0221-4E74-B134-8BC98C0BB170.jpeg3CAF43A2-7FD1-4243-898F-609A1C618DE2.jpeg
 

Attachments

  • 5F0F9EFC-0221-4E74-B134-8BC98C0BB170.jpeg
    5F0F9EFC-0221-4E74-B134-8BC98C0BB170.jpeg
    85.7 KB · Views: 269
  • 3CAF43A2-7FD1-4243-898F-609A1C618DE2.jpeg
    3CAF43A2-7FD1-4243-898F-609A1C618DE2.jpeg
    205.5 KB · Views: 279
I agree on the 6:00x6, but prefer yellow Cubs. My personal J3 has a stripe as dimensioned above, but it is red with a black pinstripe. My bear is 150% of the original. Blasphemy, huh?
 
You can't see it when you are flying. That is how I excuse my ugly Super Cub. I am fond of white with a red lightening bolt probably because that is how the Super Cub I cut my teeth on was painted.
 
I heard once that the reason you Cub guys all go for that paint scheme, besides historical accuracy and tradition, is that it makes it hard for witnesses/onlookers to separate who did what, when. That can't be right, and it's not your fault if it happens.:lol:
 
To each his own. I've always been an adherent to historically accurate paint schemes on vintage airplanes. I'm a little off the deep end on aviation history, but beyond that is the fact that most of the original manufacturers got it right as regards to the scheme being compatible with and accentuating the lines of the design. For a PA-18, I've always liked the scheme and color palate Piper used in the early 50s.

I remember that Piper put the J-3 scheme on Super Cubs when they started production of the PA-18 again in the '90s. To my eye, the lightning bolt doesn't work very well with 12 inch high registration numbers plastered on the side of the fuselage.

On the other hand, If you're doing the work and/or footing the bill to recover a vintage airplane, what I or anyone else thinks the airplane should look like doesn't matter. If a purple airplane with pink polka dots does it for you, good on ya.
 
I heard once that the reason you Cub guys all go for that paint scheme, besides historical accuracy and tradition, is that it makes it hard for witnesses/onlookers to separate who did what, when. That can't be right, and it's not your fault if it happens.:lol:

BINGO! I know of a few stories to support that one.
 
Back
Top