Piper's Forgotten American Indian

- Dave Unwin

Filthy, forlorn and with flat tyres, the PA-24 at the back of the hangar was certainly a sorry sight. Keith and I regarded it in stunned silence. “That can’t be it!” he said. “Well if it is, I’m not flying it!” I retorted. Retracing our steps, we both practically sighed with relief when we spotted what looked like a brand-new Comanche gleaming in the sunshine outside the Dukeries Aviation hangar at Netherthorpe airfield. “That’s more like it,” we chorused!

The Comanche occupies its own particular place in aviation history, as it was the first all-metal aircraft built by possibly the greatest-ever manufacturer of fabric-covered aircraft; Piper. Although a steady stream of aircraft had flowed from Piper’s Lock Haven, Pennsylvania plant over the preceding twenty years, by 1957 the various versions of Cubs, Cruisers and Clippers were beginning to look more than a little dated. This was the start of the Space Age: Russia had a satellite in orbit, nuclear-powered submarines and jet airliners were being tested, and even cars (such as the Chevrolet Bel Air and Ford Thunderbird) looked futuristic. Of more interest to Piper Aircraft dealers, Beechcraft’s V-35 Bonanza had been selling strongly for ten years and they had nothing even remotely like it. If they were to stay in business, Piper clearly needed to update its product line and offer something a little more sophisticated than the ‘rag ’n’ tube’ tail draggers the company had become synonymous with.