aviation founded 1927 founder william piper headquarters vero beach florida united states key people ceo simon caldecott cfo john calcagno owner brunei ministry of finance website www.piper.com piper aircraft inc. is a manufacturer of general aviation aircraft located at the vero beach municipal airport in vero beach florida united states and owned since 2009 by the government of brunei . along with beechcraft and cessna it was at one time considered one of the big three in the field of general aviation manufacturing . 1 between its founding in 1927 and the end of 2009 the company produced 144 000 aircraft in 160 certified models of which 90 000 are still flying . 2 contents 1 history 1.1 1930s 1.2 1940s 1.3 1950s 1.4 1960s 1.5 1970s 1.6 1980s and 1990s 1.7 2000s 1.8 2010s 2 aircraft 2.1 list of piper aircraft 3 see also 4 references 5 sources 6 external links history edit piper aircraft company factory in lock haven pennsylvania with the piper cub logo superimposed at the top pa28 161 iii piper super cub piper pa 28 161 warrior ii piper pa 34 seneca 200t early production pa 31 navajo piper pa 32 rt 300t turbo lance ii piper pa 44 180 seminole the company was originally founded as the taylor brothers aircraft manufacturing company in september 1927 by clarence gilbert taylor and gordon a. taylor in rochester new york . the company was renamed taylor brothers aircraft corporation in april 1928 shortly before gordon taylor died in an aircraft accident on april 24 1928 . the company was enticed to move to bradford pennsylvania with the promise of larger facility and investment capital from local businessmen including an initial investment of 400 from local oil industry engineer william t. piper . the move was completed in september 1929 . 3 1930s edit in late 1930 the company filed for bankruptcy and william t. piper purchased the assets of the company for 761 . 3 reorganized as the taylor aircraft company piper effectively took control of the firm when he assumed the position of corporate secretary treasurer although he retained c. g. taylor in the role of president . 3 piper often called the henry ford of aviation firmly believed a simple to operate low cost private airplane would flourish even in the darkest depths of the great depression . 4 this aircraft was the e 2 cub . 4 in december 1935 after a series of clashes william piper bought out c. g. taylor who left the company and went on to form the taylorcraft aircraft company . on march 16 1937 a fire destroyed the bradford factory and the company relocated to an abandoned silk mill in lock haven pennsylvania . in 1937 it was renamed piper aircraft corporation . 5 1940s edit piper continued operations in lock haven throughout world war ii building military versions of its j 3 cub as the l 4 grasshopper . a total of 5 941 powered aircraft were built by the company for the us armed forces during the war as well as training gliders and aircraft components for other manufacturers 6 but its main contribution to the war effort was in the fabrication of steel masts for mounting radar antennas . 7 in 1946 the company opened a new factory in ponca city oklahoma and transferred production of the cub from lock haven . that year piper led the american industry in light aircraft production . almost 7 800 of the 35 000 civil aircraft built in the united states that year were pipers but a strike led to a shortage of steel tubing interrupting production and 1 900 workers had to be suspended as a result . 8 9 the following year the postwar general aviation boom ended . piper s output reached 3 500 aircraft less than half its 1946 total and the company suffered an operating loss of more than 560 000 . 8 10 the board of directors replaced william piper with william shriver a former chrysler executive . 10 under shriver the product line was expanded with the introduction of the pa 14 family cruiser and pa 15 vagabond . 10 piper introduced the taxicub light charter concept at 1500 dealers and 52 distributors . 11 in 1948 with two thirds of its workforce laid off piper only lost 75 000 but it found itself no longer the leader in a shrinking market falling behind cessna which itself only delivered 1 600 aircraft ; the ponca city factory was closed . 8 10 at the end of 1948 piper bought the stinson aircraft company for 3 million and shriver left the company . 12 1950s edit the outbreak of the korean war in 1950 helped to stimulate production at piper which again won large orders for military versions of the cub . 12 william piper regained control of the company the same year and the decision was made to develop a twin engine aircraft . the company initially investigated producing the baumann brigadier but later decided to develop a stinson design which became the pa 23 apache . 12 in its business planning following the war it became clear the lock haven facility would not support larger manufacturing efforts and in 1955 it acquired rights to property at the vero beach municipal airport . citation needed vero beach was initially used as a center for design work under fred weick with the first aircraft developed there being piper s first agricultural aircraft the pa 25 pawnee announced in 1958 and entering production the following year at lock haven . 13 1960s edit in 1960 the line of piper aircraft consisted of an agricultural and two passenger variants of the super cub ; the caribbean colt and tri pacer ; two versions of the pa 24 comanche ; the pawnee ; and the apache and its new larger derivative the aztec . 14 the following year the pa 28 cherokee was the first type to enter production at the new vero beach factory . 15 16 the cherokee replaced the tri pacer and colt which ended their production runs in 1961 and 1964 respectively . 15 by the later part of the decade vero beach was building 7 000 cherokees per year . 17 in september 1964 piper flew the prototype of its new pa 31 navajo cabin class twin for the first time after two and a half years of development . 18 19 in 1969 the piper family agreed to sell piper aircraft to bangor punta corporation which started an eight year court battle with the losing bidder chris craft industries culminating in a supreme court decision in 1977 . 20 1970s edit piper discussed a merger with swearingen but the deal was not completed . 21 the lock haven facility was nearly destroyed in 1972 when torrential rains from hurricane agnes caused the susquehanna river to flood in june . the manufacturing plant was flooded to a depth of 16 feet 4.9 m effectively destroying about 100 aircraft and causing an estimated 23 million in damage . 22 23 much of the tooling necessary for production of several designs including the aztec navajo and comanche was also destroyed citation needed and the piper pa 31t cheyenne program received a setback when the prototype was damaged just after the federal aviation administration awarded it type certification . 24 initial deliveries of the new pa 31 350 chieftain were also delayed by several months . 25 after the flood piper gave 32 written off pa 28s pa 31s and pa 23 aztecs to nasa which used them for crash tests at the langley research center using a rig originally built to simulate spacecraft landings on the moon for the apollo program . 26 as a result of the flood the company decided to end production of the piper pa 24 comanche 27 piper opened a manufacturing division in lakeland florida in 1972 and through the 1970s the piper pa 31 navajo chieftain and cheyenne iii were manufactured at the more than 710 000 square foot 66 000 m2 facility on the lakeland municipal airport . 28 1980s and 1990s edit piper opened its t1000 airline division at the lakeland florida location in may 1981 with 20 people . employment at both of piper s lakeland divisions peaked at 2 200 later that year . the piper pa 42 cheyenne iv and the piper t 1020 piper t 1040 aircraft were manufactured in lakeland during that time . piper also maintained a fully staffed research and development center in lakeland including the x shop which developed the piper pa 48 enforcer . the airline division provided aircraft for commuter airlines in the united states including air new orleans desert sun in long beach shasta air and sun west airlines as well as internationally for vickers for corporate transport use in the united kingdom cameroon s avia services and to piper s distributor in colombia aero leaver . 28 in 1984 piper changed hands when parent company bangor punta was acquired by lear siegler . 29 lear siegler in turn was acquired by forstmann little in 1986 . 30 forstmann little then sold piper to m. stuart millar in 1987 . 31 manufacture of light aircraft was impacted in the mid 1980s when increasing product liability insurance premiums made operation financially difficult for piper aircraft and other american manufacturers of light aircraft . in a bid to improve sales piper cut prices for its aircraft and the company became unprofitable . in 1991 the lakeland florida factory was sold and closed and by july that year the workforce had shrunk to just 45 ; with only 1 000 in available cash remaining piper filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy after a proposed takeover by competing french manufacturer socata failed over the issue of product liability . 32 33 production of the flagship cheyenne 400 ended in february 1993 with only 43 being built since its inception a decade earlier . 34 in 1995 the company emerged from chapter 11 bankruptcy and was renamed the new piper aircraft . as part of the end of bankruptcy protection the company was sold to newco pac inc. itself owned by piper s creditors including major creditor aircraft engine manufacturer teledyne continental motors and a philadelphia based investment firm . 32 35 2000s edit in july 2003 american capital strategies ltd. bought 94 % of piper s voting equity . citation needed in july 2006 a partnership with honda was announced to market the new ha 420 hondajet . 36 the following month the firm dropped the new from its name reverting to piper aircraft . in response to the late 2000s recession the company announced in november 2008 that it was reducing its work week to save money while avoiding lay offs . piper is party to an agreement with the state of florida that will see the company benefit from us 32 million in incentives in exchange for increasing its work force to 1400 people and building the piperjet in the state . 37 in december 2008 the company announced it will defer the us 10 million incentive that would have required it to hire 400 new workers by 2012 for the piperjet project and retain 1 417 employees through 2015 . the company stated the move was precautionary . piper spokesman mark miller said while this year has been a good one for piper we have taken measures to keep the company healthy and to weather any future adversity . 38 in february 2009 the company announced it was laying off an additional 300 workers without notice immediately and the 650 remaining workers would be given unpaid weeks off in april and july to reduce unsold inventory . piper spokesman mark miller stated company regretted the pain caused by the layoffs and indicated the employees would be rehired when the economy improves . he also said