The CubCrafters CC18-180 Top Cub is an American

light aircraft A light aircraft is an aircraft that has a maximum gross takeoff weight of or less.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 308. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. Light aircraft are used as utility aircraft co ...

designed and produced by

CubCrafters Cub Crafters, Inc. (often styled CubCrafters) is an aircraft manufacturer based in Yakima, Washington. Founded in 1980, by Jim Richmond, to build parts and supplementary type certificate (STC) modifications for the Piper PA-18 Super Cub, its ...

Yakima, Washington Yakima ( or ) is a city in and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, and the state's 11th-largest city by population. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 96,968 and a metropolitan population of 256,728. The uninc ...

, introduced in 2004. The aircraft is

type certified A type certificate signifies the airworthiness of a particular category of aircraft, according to its manufacturing design (''type design''). It confirms that the aircraft of a new type intended for serial production, is in compliance with applica ...

and supplied complete and ready-to-fly.Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', page 42. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015. The design is based on the 1949 vintage

Piper PA-18 Super Cub The Piper PA-18 Super Cub is a two-seat, single-engine monoplane. Introduced in 1949 by Piper Aircraft, it was developed from the PA-11 Cub Special, and traces its lineage back through the J-3 Cub to the Taylor E-2 Cub of the 1930s. In close ...

Design and development

The CC18-180 Top Cub was designed to comply with the

FAR 23 The Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) are rules prescribed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) governing all aviation activities in the United States. The FARs comprise Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). A wide variety ...

certification rules. It features a strut-braced

high-wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing conf ...

, an enclosed cockpit with two-seats-in-

tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

accessed by doors, fixed

conventional landing gear Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...

and a single engine in

tractor configuration In aviation, the term tractor configuration refers to an aircraft constructed in the standard configuration with its engine mounted with the propeller in front of it so that the aircraft is "pulled" through the air. Oppositely, the pusher co ...

. The aircraft is made from welded

4130 steel 41xx steel is a family of SAE steel grades, as specified by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Alloying elements include chromium and molybdenum, and as a result these materials are often informally referred to as chromoly steel (common var ...

tubing, with its flying surfaces covered in doped

aircraft fabric Aircraft fabric covering is a term used for both the material used and the process of covering aircraft open structures. It is also used for reinforcing closed plywood structures. The de Havilland Mosquito is an example of this technique, as are ...

. Its span wing has an area of and mounts flaps. Standard engines available are the Lycoming O-360-C4P or O-360-C1G and the Superior O-360-A3A2

four-stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either direct ...

powerplants. The aircraft can be flown on wheels,

tundra tire A tundra tire (UK: ''tundra tyre'') is a large low-pressure tire used on light aircraft to allow operations on rough terrain. A common variant of tundra tire is the bushwheel brand. These tires include an integral inner tube with the valve man ...

ski A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partia ...

s or amphibious floats. Belly pods are available to increase cargo and fuel capacity. The design was initially type certified by the US

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

on 16 December 2004. The aircraft was certified by

Transport Canada Transport Canada (french: Transports Canada) is the department within the Government of Canada responsible for developing regulations, policies and services of road, rail, marine and air transportation in Canada. It is part of the Transporta ...

on 23 July 2008 and achieved Australian certification in August 2008. In July 2015 CubCrafters sold the type certificate for the CC18 to the Liaoning Cub Aircraft Corporation of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. Cub Crafters then licensed the design back so they could produce the aircraft for the non-Chinese market. The type certificate was transferred to a holding company, Topcub Aircraft, Inc, on August 13, 2015. The Liaoning Cub Aircraft Corporation plans to produce the design in China for

flight training Flight training is a course of study used when learning to pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills. Flight training can be conducted under a st ...

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing airc ...

, mapping,

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

and personal use.

Operational history

Reviewer Marino Boric described the design in a 2015 review saying, "the Top Cub is an ideal choice for any adventure-seeking pilot." By February 2017, 74 examples had been registered in the United States with the

and three with

Variants

;CC18-180 :Version type certified by the US FAA on 16 December 2004 for day and night,

Visual Flight Rules In aviation, visual flight rules (VFR) are a set of regulations under which a pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better ...

(VFR). ;CC18-180A :Version type certified by the US FAA on 1 July 2005 for day VFR. Only one built.

Specifications (CC18-180 Top Cub)

References

External links

* {{Piper Cub aircraft CC18-180 2000s United States civil utility aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft