28 September 2007
It now seems certain that next week’s AOPA Conference in Hartford, Connecticut, will see the announcement of a ‘new’ Piper aircraft.
The Piper Matrix, we understand, will be an unpressurised Malibu Mirage with 1,000 nm range, a max cruise of 200 ktas and a max operating altitude of 25,000 ft. These figures compare to 1,300 nm, 213 ktas and 25,000 ft of the Mirage. It had been thought that the new aircraft might be turbocharged, but from the figures (and from the shape of the cowling and exhaust on the photographs which we’ve seen) it would appear that maybe it will have a normally aspirated 250 hp engine.
We’ll bring you more on the aircraft when we get firm news.
