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The Piper PA-14 Family Cruiser is an American-built small touring aircraft of the late 1940s.
Design and development
Piper Aircraft had built the PA-12 Super Cruiser three-seat touring aircraft between early 1946 and March 1948. In 1947, the PA-12 design was adapted to a four-seat layout by widening the cabin by five inches at the instrument panel and adding slotted flaps. The original high-wing and fixed tailwheel undercarriage layout features were retained. The PA-14 prototype made its first flight from the company'sLock Haven
Lock Haven is the county seat of Clinton County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Located near the confluence of the West Branch Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Creek, it is the principal city of the Lock Haven Micropolitan Statistical Area ...
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
factory on 21 March 1947.Peperell p. 61
Production and operations
A second PA-14 was completed on 6 February 1948 and the first customer deliveries were made later that year. 238 examples were completed,Simpson pp. 230–231 most being sold to private owner pilots in the United States, but overseas sales included several toFrance
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
. The aircraft was launched at a time of serious financial difficulty for the company, and indeed, soon after the release of the Family Cruiser, Piper was placed in receivership
In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in c ...
, from which it later successfully emerged. 126 examples remained registered in the United States in April 2011, of which 81 were based in Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...
and 13 aircraft were registered in Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
.
Specifications
See also
References
* Peperell, Roger, ''Piper Aircraft and their forerunners'', Air-Britain (Publishers) Ltd, 1987, * Simpson, Rod, ''General Aviation Handbook, Midland Publishing, 2005,External links
{{Piper Cub Single-engined tractor aircraft High-wing aircraft 1940s United States civil utility aircraft Family Cruiser Aircraft first flown in 1947