With the end of World War II in sight, Piper made preparations for large-scale production of lightplanes for civil use, and began by developing an improved version of the J-5C Cruiser of which production had ended during 1942. Although technically a three-seat aircraft, the Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser was more usually used and regarded as a de luxe two-seater, and differed from the J-5C only in a number of cosmetic refinements to make it an attractive purchase. The prototype was flown in December 1945 and attracted so much attention that the company soon had an enormous backlog of orders, and when production of this version ended no fewer than 3,758 had been built. Dimensionally little had changed from the J-5C, and having the same 75kW Avco Lycoming O-235-C engine, the PA-12 had a maximum speed of 183km/h at sea level.