Piper Aircraft announced several price rollbacks and a large trainer order from the University of North Dakota on the opening days of theAero exposition in Friedrichshafen, Germany, on Wednesday morning.
Piper CEO Simon Caldecott told the press that some 100 aircraft have been ordered by UND, one of the largest single trainer orders during the past decade. Heretofore, UND’s single-engine fleet consisted of Cessnas. The school has more than 2000 students and operates 120 aircraft. Deliveries will begin in the last quarter of this year and will extend over the next eight years. UND’s Donald Dubuque said the university looked at Piper’s DX diesel and conceded that diesel power will be in the school’s future, but for now, it decided to stick with Lycoming-powered aircraft.
Caldecott also announced surprising price rollbacks on both the company’s M-class line and the Seneca, which remains a mainstay piston twin. The M500—formerly the Meridian—has been reduced in price from $2.26 million to $1.99 million. Caldecott said the M500 is on display in Europe for the first time.
The Matrix has also been reduced in price by about $40,000 to $899,000 while the Seneca 5 was reduced by $50,000 to $979,000. When asked why and how Piper made the reductions, he said the company has shifted its marketing and production focus away from predicting market demand to a model that assumes everything on the production line is already sold. In addition, during the past six years, Piper has retooled its workflow and invested in CNC equipment to improve production efficiency.
Caldecott reported that certification testing work on the new turboprop M600 continues, with a type certificate expected later this year. He said the company’s initial testing revealed that the M600 is faster than expected—274 knots actual, compared to 260 knots predicted—and will also have more than 1400 miles of still-air range, more than 200 miles greater than originally projected.
