William Piper Sr.: Unplanned Rise to Aviation Prominence

William Piper Sr. was an American businessman, aviator, and airplane manufacturer. He founded the Piper Aircraft Corporation and served as its first president. He was an inductee into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

Piper was born on January 8, 1881 in the village of Knapp Creek in New York. His father managed the family’s dairy farm and crude oil business. At eight, Piper was exposed to rural life - milking cows and walking miles every day to attend a one-room school in the countryside. At nine, he assisted his father in repairing the well pumps of their crude oil business. Later in his boyhood, his family moved to Bradford, Pennsylvania.

During the Spanish-American War, Piper was recruited for the US Army. After the war, Piper took up mechanical engineering at Harvard. He graduated in 1903 with honors. His first job out of Harvard was with construction. Later, Piper returned to Bradford with his wife Marie van de Water. He took up his father’s oil business and turned it into the Dallas Oil Company. He had a short stint with the Army Corps of Engineers during the World War I. He went back to the oil business after the war but the business grew less profitable.

Once, a self-taught airplane designer named C. Gilbert Taylor built a monoplane and convinced the community leaders of Bradford to pledge $50,000 to build a facility that would produce the monoplanes in the town’s airport. Piper’s business partner pledged $400 in his behalf. Later, this partner told him, “Bill, you are in the airplane business now.” He knew little about aviation but he was elected into the board of the Taylor Brothers Aircraft Corporation as treasurer. Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt due to the Great Depression.

At the public sale, Piper acquired the bankrupt company for $761. The business environment was really tough at that time but Piper managed to produce low cost planes like the “Cub.” To sell the Cub, Piper pushed for free flying lessons. This appealed to many people to fly for the first time.

When his Bradford plant caught fire, Piper, along with his children Thomas, Howard and William, converted an abandoned silk mill in Lock Haven Pennsylvania into an aircraft factory. They re-organized the company and established the Piper Aircraft Corporation. The Cubs continued to set records of all sorts.