Piper Aircraft, Inc

Aircraft Manufacturer

At a glance

Models: 44
In production: 6
Cruise: 65–351 kt
Power: Piston • Turboprop

Overview

Piper Aircraft is one of general aviation’s founding names, a manufacturer whose trainers, haulers, and personal aircraft have shaped the light-aircraft fleet since the 1930s. Founded in 1927 in Rochester, New York as the Taylor Brothers Aircraft Manufacturing Company, it took the Piper name a decade later and built its reputation first on the J-3 Cub and then on the Cherokee family. The company remains in production today at Vero Beach, Florida, under ownership tied to the Government of Brunei.

Heritage

The company began as the Taylor Brothers Aircraft Manufacturing Company, founded by Clarence and Gordon Taylor in 1927. William T. Piper bought its assets out of bankruptcy in 1930 for $761 and reorganized it as the Taylor Aircraft Company, buying out C. G. Taylor entirely in 1935. After a 1937 factory fire, the firm moved to a former silk mill in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania and was renamed the Piper Aircraft Corporation. The J-3 Cub, the first inexpensive trainer built in large numbers, made the Piper name a household one through the war years and after. Design work shifted to Vero Beach, Florida in the mid-1950s, with manufacturing there from 1961, and Florida eventually became the company’s sole home. From its founding to the end of 2009 Piper produced over 144,000 aircraft across more than 160 certified models, around 90,000 of them still flying. American Capital Strategies sold the company in 2009 to Imprimis, a Singapore-based investment firm funded by the Government of Brunei, and it passed to direct Brunei government ownership by 2011.

Design Signature

Piper’s identity rests on accessible, durable airframes built in volume. The fabric-and-tube J-3 Cub and its Super Cub descendant defined the affordable taildragger and the backcountry workhorse. The all-metal, low-wing Cherokee introduced in the early 1960s became one of the most widely produced training aircraft in the world, its constant-chord “Hershey bar” wing a recognizable Piper trait later refined into a tapered planform. The family stretched into load-haulers like the six-seat Cherokee Six and into the Seneca and Navajo twins, then climbed into the pressurized, cabin-class PA-46 line that runs from the piston Malibu to the M600 turboprop and anchors the company’s current M-class.

For Owners

Piper is an active manufacturer with a factory, parts pipeline, and type support at Vero Beach. Its current lineup spans the M700 Fury, M500, and piston M350 pressurized singles, the Seminole twin trainer, and the Archer and Pilot 100 piston trainers. The legacy fleet is among the best-supported in general aviation: parts availability is broad, and large owner communities and type clubs serve the Cub, Cherokee, Comanche, and M-class families. For a buyer, that breadth means most Piper models can be maintained and flown indefinitely, with the trainers in particular backed by decades of accumulated maintenance knowledge and a deep used market.

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