Win Lulu Belle, a 1942-Vintage Piper J-3/L-4B Cub
As parts, insurance, maintenance, and fuel costs have skyrocketed, parties formerly able to correctly maintain the world’s J-3 Cubs, Cessna 120s, Aeronca 7ACs, Beechcraft Bonanzas, and Ryan Navions have been forced to choose between servicing their airplanes and paying their mortgages.
As moving one’s family into his pride-and-joy Citabria is a difficult and unpopular undertaking, many owners have taken to scrapping or outright abandoning aircraft beloved of entire generations of pilots and aviation aficionados.
In the absence of concerted effort and great deals of money, thousands of historic airplanes stand to be lost forever.
Enter the Historic Aircraft Preservation Society, Inc. (HAPS), a Dallas-based non-profit dedicated to preserving, refurbishing, flying, and displaying classic American aircraft of the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s. HAPS is perpetually about the work of honoring America’s aviation heritage by restoring neglected, damaged, and otherwise forsaken iconic airplanes and keeping alive the stories of the men and machines by which Earth’s skies came to be among humankind’s provinces.
On 15 May 2023, the Historic Aircraft Preservation Society announced it is offering a classic Piper J-3/L-4B Cub as the grand prize of its summer 2023 fund-raising campaign. The aircraft, dubbed Lulu Belle, began life as an Army L-4B and was assigned to North Carolina’s Camp Butner, where she helped train artillery spotters in preparation for the Allied invasion of Europe. Lulu Belle was completed by Piper just before Christmas 1942 and was sold to the U.S. government for the then fair-market price of $2,130.
Lulu Belle is in current annual inspection and has logged 325 hours Since Major Overhaul (SMOH) on a 75-horsepower Continental engine. The aircraft is equipped with a Garmin GTR-200 Comm/Intercom and ready to fly home.
Non-pilot-rated individuals seeking to participate in the HAPS drawing are cordially reminded that Piper’s J-3 Cub is an excellent flight-training platform—one in which thousands upon thousands of WWII and post-war pilots learned to fly.
Alternately, winners may choose a $25,000 cash prize in lieu of Lulu Belle.
All proceeds deriving of the HAPS 2023 summer fund-raiser will be plied to the preservation and restoration of historic aircraft.
Currently, HAPS is restoring a rare 1931 Fleet Model 8 biplane to airworthiness. Subject aircraft was once owned by famed WWII bomber pilot Fred J. McConnell, after whom the U.S. Air Force named Wichita’s McConnell Air Force Base.
HAPS is located in Hangar Three on Texas’s Eagles Nest Airport (T56), some twenty-miles south of downtown Dallas. The organization and its work are supported primarily by the generous donations of the aviation community.
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