Piper Aircraft

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Piper Aircraft, Inc.

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1927
Seat Vero Beach , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
management Simon Caldecott ( CEO )
Branch Aircraft construction
Website www.piper.com

The Piper Aircraft, Inc. is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Vero Beach , Florida . Piper has been owned by the Brunei State Fund since 2009 .

history

Piper J-3 Cub

Taylor Aircraft

The company was founded in September 1927 by Clarence Gilbert Taylor and Gordon A. Taylor as Taylor Brothers Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Rochester, New York. The name was changed to Taylor Brothers Aircraft Corporation in April 1928 , shortly before Gordon Taylor's fatal crash on April 24, 1928. After promising better manufacturing and financial support from local business people, the company moved to Bradford in September 1929, Pennsylvania. One of the donors was oil entrepreneur William T. Piper , who initially contributed $ 400.

In late 1930, Taylor Brothers was bankrupt. William T. Piper bought the manufacturing facilities for $ 761 and founded the Taylor Aircraft Company, chaired by Clarence Taylor. Piper believed that an inexpensive plane that was easy to fly would succeed.

After a series of crashes, Piper took over the company shares from Clarence Taylor in December 1935, who left the company and started his own company, the Taylorcraft Aircraft Company . On March 16, 1937, the Bradford factory burned down. The company then moved into an empty textile factory in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. In November 1937 the name was changed to Piper Aircraft Corporation .

Piper Aircraft

Piper PA-28-161 Warrior II

Piper initially continued the production of the Piper J-3 Cub designed by Walter Jamouneau , which had been started by Taylor Aircraft . When the demand for aircraft of all types increased sharply at the outbreak of World War II, a further development of the Piper Cub, the Piper L-4 , was used by the US military as a training aircraft . The L-4 was the first Piper type to be mass-produced.

Up until 1954, all Piper airplanes had a composite construction with fabric-covered tubular steel fuselages. In 1954, the Piper Apache appeared as the first Piper aircraft in a self-supporting light metal construction. The Apache was also Piper's first twin-engine aircraft.

The aircraft construction had to be stopped in the mid-1980s after the increased insurance premiums made economic operation impossible. This was the result of product liability that had been legally extended to several decades. Competing companies such as B. Cessna stopped production. After statutory liability had been limited again at the beginning of the 1990s, the New Piper Aircraft, launched through a management buyout , resumed production in 1995. Since August 2006 the company has been using the name Piper Aircraft again . In May 2009 the previous owner, American Capital Ltd., sold the company to Imprimis Strategic Investment Corporation from Brunei .

Licensed buildings by EMBRAER

In 1975 Piper signed a contract with the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer EMBRAER for the license to build six Piper types. The individual series concerned the following series, each of which was given its own type designation by EMBRAER:

When the contract expired in 2000, more than 2,500 aircraft had been built under license.

Examples of Piper aircraft types

Piper L21 / PA-18/150
Front PA-20, rear PA-22
Piper PA-28
Piper PA-34
Piper PA-42 Cheyenne, former training aircraft of the Lufthansa Flight Training Commercial Aviation School

Piper's product range includes single and twin-engine aircraft for general aviation , some with piston engines and some with turboprop engines . In addition, Piper takes over the distribution of the Liberty XL-2 and plans to market the HondaJet .

Piper J-3 "Cub"

→ Main article: Piper J-3

The Piper J-3 Cub is a light single-engine aircraft that can accommodate up to two people. It was designed as a training aircraft and quickly became Piper's first major success. More than 14,000 copies were made from 1938 to 1947.

Piper PA-18 "Super Cub"

→ Main article: Piper PA-18

Further development of the J3 / L4 series with engines from 95–150 hp. Popular around the world as a bush and tow plane and as a light seaplane. Achieved fame in Germany through the Burda squadron and the Swiss glacier pilot Hermann Geiger and also served as a primary school aircraft for the German armed forces. More than 10,000 aircraft have been built to date.

Piper PA-20 "Pacer" and PA-22 "Tri Pacer"

→ Main article: Piper PA-20 four-seat touring aircraft similar to the PA-18. With tail wheel (PA-20) or with nose gear (PA-22). Over 10,000 were built.

Piper PA-28 "Cherokee"

→ Main article: Piper PA-28

Piper developed the PA-28 primarily as a training and travel aircraft. To date, more than 23 versions have been presented and more than 51,000 aircraft have been delivered. This makes the PA-28 the most successful aircraft type from Piper and one of the most widely built aircraft of all.

Piper PA-34 "Seneca"

→ Main article: Piper PA-34

The twin-engine business jet for up to five passengers has been in production since 1971.

Piper PA-42 "Cheyenne"

→ Main article: Piper PA-42

The Cheyenne III and IV is Piper's largest series-built aircraft development. The aircraft, powered by two turboprop engines, offers space for up to nine passengers and two crew members. 192 copies were made.

Piper PA-44 "Seminole"

→ Main article: Piper PA-44

The Piper PA-44 Seminole is a twin-engine, four-seat light aircraft, which is mainly used as a training aircraft for the multi-engine rating. It has been in series production since 1978.

PiperJet Altaire 360

→ Main article PiperJet Altaire 360

The PiperJet Altaire is an aborted VLJ project by Piper from 2011 that was supposed to transport up to six people.

See also

Web links

Commons : Piper Aircraft Corporation  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ imprimis.biz: Recent Transactions May 2009 ( Memento of the original from August 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 14, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.imprimis.biz
  2. ↑ Flight International, special issue EMBRAER at 50 , May 2019 (English), p. 8.