Word: piper
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...BILL PIPER has turned over most of the company's day-to-day operations to his three sons-William Jr., Howard and Thomas-but he still keeps a firm hand on the stick. Up before 7 every day, he walks the mile from his small home to the company's offices in Lock Haven. Pa., hatless and overcoatless in all weather. Though he no longer singlehanded lifts Cubs off the ground, a feat he once liked to perform to amaze onlookers, he often pauses at the production line to lend a hand in hoisting a wing into position...
...swivel-chair man, Piper travels some 75,000 miles a year to extol his planes' virtues, sometimes gets so wound up that he forgets to stop. "A speech is like an airplane engine," he says. "It may sound like hell, but you've got to go on." He admits he is a poor pilot, points to this as proof that anyone can fly a Piper. He flew his own plane until four years ago. when, says Piper, "My son finally said to me, 'Dad, wouldn't it make a hell of an advertisement for Piper Aircraft...
...circuitous route to aviation after graduating from high school in Bradford, Pa. in 1898. After a short hitch in the Spanish-American War, he went to Harvard instead of Yale because his teetotaling father believed that there were fewer saloons in Harvard Square than in New Haven. Piper was a star hammer thrower, graduated cum laude in 1903. He spent the next eleven years as a construction engineer, went back to Bradford in 1914 and became a successful oil-well operator. When the Taylor Brothers Aircraft Corp. moved to Bradford, Piper became a director, though he had little interest...
...Piper soon got interested. After the company went bankrupt during the Depression, he poured in his oil money to keep it going, learned to fly. He insisted that the company build a smaller, less expensive plane, presided over the creation of the first Cub. Price: $1,325. In 1936 Piper bought out Taylor, had hardly got started when the company's factory was destroyed by fire. Though only 5% insured. Piper said stoically: "At least we'll getm some publicity...
Borrowing money to start up again. Piper moved to an abandoned silk mill in Lock Haven, set up the Piper Aircraft Corp. Cub sales rose from 22 in 1931 to 687 in 1937, when Piper took over as the No. 1 U.S. light-plane maker. Piper got a tremendous boost from the war. More than 5,000 easily maneuverable Pipers served as reconnaissance, liaison and ambulance planes. They became known to G.I.s as "flying Jeeps" and to the Germans as "hell raisers" because bombing raids often followed their reconnaissance flights. Piper, like other small-plane makers, was shoved into...