It was and is a fantastic little aircraft, able to fly at 160kt below 10,000ft, burning just nine US gallons a side on a combined total of 320hp.
Piper’s Twin Com prototype first flew in 1962. And despite losing some effective wingspan due to its twin engine installation, the ‘Twin Com’ has only 9.5 inches more span than the single.
The result was an aircraft which could fly faster than the much later Piper Seminole on less horsepower and yet lift more. When the Bonanza begat the twin-engined Travel Air and subsequently the Baron, Piper was inspired to give the PA-24 to Ed Swearingen to re-engineer it as a twin. To keep up, along came the PA-24 in 1958. The Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche design started with the single-engined PA-24 Comanche, a laminar-winged rocket which itself was a breakaway from the sturdy but slow aircraft that Piper was famous for at the time?such as the Cub, the Cherokee and the Apache.īeech had taken the GA world by storm with the Bonanza and Piper genuinely had to raise its game. The name of this great light twin rather gives the game away. Still sprightly at fifty-years-old, the Twin Comanche can give younger pretenders a run for their money | Words Bob Davy | Photos Keith Wilson
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