Piper PA-42 Cheyenne
The Piper PA -42 Cheyenne is a twin-engine turboprop aircraft in low-wing interpretation of the U.S. aircraft manufacturer Piper Aircraft Corporation. The retractable nose gear and the two retracting into the engine nacelles main landing gears are each single tires.
Development and Construction
The Cheyenne is a turboprop variant of the Piper PA -31. It carried the Cheyenne I and II nor the name of PA -31 Navajo and caused by prolongation of the hull and installation of a turboprop engine. To this end, instead of piston engines, two Pratt & Whitney PT6A were installed and the passenger cell was designed as a pressurized cabin. The variant was designated the PA - 31T. The first flight was held on August 29, 1969, but difficulties with the stability of the cell have led to significant design changes. Finally, the first machines in 1974 came to the customer. It could be sold of this type and some variants under 823 machines.
Later, further refinements were added such as a T-tail and an extension of the cabin. The machine was then called the Piper PA -42 Cheyenne III. The first machine was launched on 18 May 1979. As engines uprated PT6A were used. In available from 1984 to the last version of the Cheyenne IV LS 400 (LS stood for the name of the company Lear Siegler had now bought Piper and the 400 for the maximum speed of 400 knots ) were Garret TPE331 engines with counter-rotating four-blade propellers with a capacity of 735 kW used. The first flight took place on 23 February 1983. Production ceased in February 1993 due to lack of demand for production of 192 machines ( including 45 LS 400).
The crew consists of one or two people and there are six to nine passengers.
Used was the "Cheyenne IIIA " for example at Lufthansa Flight Training as a training aircraft in instrument flight training for pilots of Lufthansa and the German army until it was replaced by the Cessna Citation Jet CJ1 .