Piper restored with Brodie landing system

摘要

Piper L-4B Grasshopper 43-1439 has been restored at Pekin Airport, Illinois, in a project led by airport manager Clayton Stambaugh. The L-4B has the Brodie landing system installed on its upper wing, a device that allowed for the recovery of light aircraft onto ships via a hook and cable-based sling. The system was initially used to land aircraft in unsuitable terrain, such as jungle, but was also used in the Pacific, mostly in operations leading up to the attack on Okinawa. The Pekin-based aircraft is believed to be the only airworthy L-4 configured with the device in the US, though there is a similarly equipped Stinson L-5 Sentinel on static display in the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.