Country of origin:

United States of America

Description:

Six-seat cabin monoplane

Power Plant:

One 194 kw (260 hp) Lycoming O-540-K six-cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled engine

Specifications:

History:

The Cherokee Six series of aircraft emanated from the PA-28 Cherokee series, which was first released in the early 1960s.  In 1957 Piper hired John Thorp to prepare preliminary designs for an all-metal replacement for the Tri-Pacer, and engineer Karl Bergey took over the project which became the PA-28. Although bearing some resemblance to the PA-28 series, the PA-32 was in fact a completely new design. Piper Aircraft built a new facility at Vero Beach, Florida to build single-engine aircraft, the production of the twin-engine aircraft remaining at Lock Haven, Pennsylvania.

Two production lines were set up, one for the PA-28 and the other for the PA-32. The PA-32 prototype fuselage was a PA-28-235 lengthened to accommodate three pairs of seats, two plugs being inserted. Production aircraft had a wider by 17.7 cm (7 in) and longer parallel centre section with a similar tail cone, thus permitting cabin dimensions of 1.22 m (4 ft) wide and 3.96 m (13 ft) long, capable of carrying up to seven persons, or 4.79 m³ (110 cub ft) of cabin space with a load of up to 590 kg (1,300 lb). Two entry doors were fitted, a normal over-wing door on the starboard side, and a 0.91 m (3 ft) wide door on the port side. As an option, the latter could be replaced by a 1.52 m (5 ft) wide cargo door. Except for heavier metal in its construction, the PA-32 had the same wing as the smaller models.

The prototype of the PA-32 series (N9999W) was flown for the first time on 6 December 1963 with a 186 kw (250 hp) variant of the Lycoming O-540 engine, and the first production aircraft followed on 17 September 1964. Type certification was received in November 1965 and immediately on entering production the 194 kw (260 hp) engine was fitted to compete against the Cessna 206. It became very popular with small freight operators and air-taxi firms around the world.  Subsequently, large numbers of the type were produced, and the type has been very popular in this part of the world, with more than 120 examples registered in Australia and 25 in New Zealand.

In 1966 a 224 kw (300 hp) variant was produced, having a fuel injected IO-540-K engine and eventually 75% of PA-32s built had this engine. In the USA the PA-32-300 could be fitted with floats or skis. Both versions received improvements during their production life, the B-model having a new instrument panel featuring levers in lieu of the push-pull engine controls. The 1974 model had an extra small window to the rear of the third main window and in 1975 the fin was extended by 15 cm (6 in).  In 1978 the 194 kw (260 hp) variant was dropped from the line, and the 224 kw (300 hp) variant the following year, the production line being converted to the new Saratoga and Cherokee Lance series.

In 1969 the Cherokee Seven was released, this having more cabin space allowing for a small jump seat between the two rear rows, making the aircraft a true seven seater, with a useful load of 736 kg (1,623 lb), and a variant with a turbocharged engine was released at the same time. When production concluded in 1979 some 3,876 had been completed, comprising 1,497 Model 260s and 2,379 Model 300s.

In 1978 a turbocharged variant known as the PA-32-300T with a 224 kw (300 hp) Lycoming TIO-540-S turbocharged engine was tested, the proposal being to market it as the Turbo Six II but this model was dropped in favour of the Saratoga. The Cherokee Six was licenced to operate on Edo-Aire 3430 floats, this model being known as the PA-32S-300, the prototype of this model (N3214W) being damaged during testing and being replaced by another aircraft (N32118W). This same aircraft was later used in land-plane configuration to develop the PA-32-300M COIN aircraft for the counter-insurgency role, with four hard-points under the wings for machine-guns or bombs.

Eventually the prototype (N9999W) was converted to take three engines, using the 186 kw (250 hp) engine in the nose and two 86 kw (115 hp) Lycoming engines on the wings. It was flown in this configuration in May 1965. However, its performance was not outstanding and all three engines were replaced by 112 kw (150 hp) Lycomings with fixed-pitch propellers, but later the concept was abandoned. The aircraft was later changed to twin-engines with two 134 kw (180 hp) engines and received the designation PA-34 Twin Six. Later it received two 149 kw (200 hp) engines and a retractable undercarriage, becoming the Seneca in 1971.