Piper PA-32R
The Piper PA32R Saratoga began life as the Piper Lance, a retractable gear version of the Piper Cherokee Six. It is a six-seat, high-performance, single engine, all-metal fixed-wing aircraft produced by Piper Aircraft. The Saratoga competes with the Beechcraft Bonanza, Mooney Ovation, Cirrus SR22, Cessna 206 Stationair, and Lancair Columbia.
History
Until 1972, when the assembly line was destroyed in a flood, the Comanche was Piper's luxury high-performance single. Afterwards, Piper began modifying its heavy lifting single engine Cherokee Six, adding retractable landing gear and renaming it to the Piper Lance in 1975, introducing a T-tail version in 1977 and a turbocharged version in 1978. The evolution of the type was completed in late 1979 with the approval of the Piper Saratoga which introduced a tapered wing and returned to the original straight tail design. The Saratoga's relationship to the Piper Cherokee Six line of fixed-gear six-place singles was emphasized when the tapered-wing Cherokee Six was also given the moniker "Saratoga." Piper stopped producing the Saratogas in 1985, but reintroduced the aircraft in 1993 as the Saratoga II HP.
The turbocharged Saratoga II TC was introduced in 1997. 1999 models introduce new Garmin and S-TEC avionics. A five seat interior with an entertainment/workstation console (similar to that in the Seneca V) is optional.
The PA-32 was also built under licence in Brazil as the Embraer EMB-720 Minuano, and the PA-32R as the EMB-721 Sertanejo, while Chincul in Argentina built the PA-32 as PA-A-32, the PA-32R as PA-A-32R, and the PA-32RT as the PA-A-32RT.
The Saratoga is possibly best known outside the aviation community as the aircraft type in which John F. Kennedy Jr. and two passengers were fatally injured on July 16 1999.