Piper Comanche

The Piper Comanche is an American single-engine light aircraft built by Piper Aircraft, introduced in 1958 as the company's first all-metal, low-wing aircraft with retractable landing gear, developed to compete with similar retractable-gear singles from Beechcraft and other manufacturers. Built with a more aerodynamically efficient airframe than Piper's earlier fabric-covered, fixed-gear designs, the Comanche offered higher cruise speeds and range than contemporary Piper models, and it remained in production for close to two decades before a factory flood in 1972 destroyed Piper's tooling for the type and ended production. The Comanche is remembered among general aviation pilots as a significant step in Piper's transition toward the modern, all-metal retractable-gear aircraft that came to dominate the company's later lineup.