Piper PA-40 Arapaho

The Piper PA-40 is a development of the Twin Comanche, a twin-engine aircraft produced by Piper in four different models (PA-30, PA-30B, PA-30C, PA-39) from 1963 to 1972. The Twin Comanche was modified to become an Arapaho as follows:

*Different wing
*Different windscreen and side windows
*Step to wing-walk
*Side strakes in front of the stabilator
*Different stabilator with leading horns
*Different vertical stabilizer tip
*Ventral fin underneath the rear fuselage
*Different main gear doors

The extensive sheet-metal modifications were designed to improve flight characteristics, but while the PA-40 was said to be a beautifully-handling aircraft, the modifications unfortunately did not alter the airplane's tendency to enter an unrecoverable flat spin under certain conditions. The Arapaho was produced with two counter-rotating 160 hp Lycoming engines. The PA-40 Arapaho had been scheduled to replace the PA-39 in the 1973-4 timeframe. Three were manufactured, and the aircraft was already fully certified when the decision was made not to proceed with the manufacture. Piper has never officially provided an explanation for the decision, but a combination of factors were likely to blame:

#Hurricane Agnes had caused substantial damage to the Lock Haven manufacturing facility, probably including damage to some of the PA-40 jigs.
#The cost of manufacture of the Comanche/Arapaho line of aircraft was high, requiring significantly more manhours than that of the Cherokee line.
#The Seneca was already in late stages of development, to be manufactured in Vero Beach, and likely had greater profit margins than the Arapaho could have had.

One of the three Arapahos was destroyed in a flat spin accident in 1973; the test pilot (who was none other than future aviation entrepreneur Clay Lacy) successfully escaped. One was scrapped by Piper. The only remaining PA-40, N9997P, is currently being used by Aviation Technology students at Purdue University in the airframe laboratory at the Purdue University Airport. The photo here was taken at Lock Haven, PA, where the airplane was manufactured, in the late 1970s while it was still being actively flown. A more recent photograph of N9997P at Purdue University can be viewed at www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled/Piper-PA-40-Arapaho/0564551 .