PA28's: what's the difference?

[Romeo Romeo]

What's the difference between the different types of PA28's? Is it just engine size or have, for example, PA28-140's got a different wing design to the rest?

[Ace Rimmer]

There's a bunch of differences -140's etc have an untapered wing with a thicker chord section - known as the Hershey-bar after the chocolate bar it does bear an uncanny resemblance to. Although they do have four seats effectively they're two seaters especially in the summer. With the Warrior (-161 - 160hp simple eh?) Piper added a new tapered wing (known as the Warrior wing) as well as the bigger engine. In addition they added some more windows to improve the astetics. About the same time they also produced the Cadet (-151) which was aimed towards flight training establishments and therefore as they spend the majority of their time two up didn't need the grunt or the windows of the Warrior. Next up is the Archer which comes in three Marks again has a Warrior wing but with 180hp up the front, still not a true four seater (on full tanks but it can manage four up from tabs if the four aren't fatties).
Then comes the Arrow basically a PA28 with retractable gear and wobbly prop the Arrow I (PA28R-180) and Arrow II (-200) have the hershey bar wing. The Arrow III (201) sports a warrior wing and there is also a turbocharged version (201T) The III (non-turbo) is in effect the current production version. The IV (turbo and non-turbo) has a T - tail but in other respects is very similar to the III

You could go on for example the Cherokee Six ( stretched PA28) morphed into the Dakota, Lance and Saratoga and come to that Seneca

I've probably missed bits out but doubtless others will put in thei£0.02

edited to add
You could get a copy of "The Piper Indians" - you can get it from any of the pilot supply shops got everything you need to know about Pipers from the Cherokee onwards

[treadigraph]

To add to Ace Rimmer's account, from memory and a bit of help from G-INFO I think Cherokee genealogy goes something like this:

PA-28 140 - Cherokee (and Cruiser?)
PA-28 150 - Cherokee
PA-28 151 - Warrior (tapered)
PA-28 160 - Cherokee
PA-28 161 - Warrior II, Cadet (tapered)
PA-28 180 - Cherokee, Archer (?)
PA-28R 180 - Arrow
PA-28 181 - Archer II, Archer III (tapered)
PA-28R 200 - Arrow II
PA-28R 201 - Arrow III (tapered)
PA-28RT 201 - Arrow IV
PA-28 235 - Cherokee, Charger (?), Pathfinder
PA-28 236 - Dakota (tapered)

I am sure some PA-28s were also known as Cruiser and Charger, but none on G-INFO!

PA-32:
PA-32 260 Cherokee Six
PA-32 300 Cherokee Six
PA-32R 300 Lance
PA-32RT 300 Lance II
PA-32 301 Saratoga
PA-32R 301 Saratoga

"R" after PA-28 indicates retractable gear
"T" after PA-28 indicates a T tail

"T" after the HP indicates Turbocharged...

Saratogas also had the suffix "SP" - dunno what that stood for, unless it was like the 747: "Special Performance".

Think that's it - what'd I miss?!!

[mattpilot]

quick question - so the number at the end always corresponds to the amount of HorsePower?

And what does the 1 mean on some of them? Like 151 ... i'm sure the engine doesn't have 151HP but rather only 150 :)

**edit - i think i figured it out - it means "tapered" right? just what is "tapered"?

[treadigraph]

Yep - A PA-28 151 Warrior is the 150hp version. I imagine the difference between 150 and 151, etc, was just to differentiate between the early and later models - same happens with the "hershey" Cherokee 235 which had a 235hp Lycoming and the "Warrior" winged Dakota, which still had the same sized engine, but was designated 236.

As Ace Rimmer says, tapered refers to the "Warrior" wing, which has tapering outer panels as opposed to the constant chord of the early Cherokee's "hershey bar" wing (except for a leading edge fillet).

Anyone know why the original PA-28s had the leading edge fillet, was that aesthetic, drag reducing or to improve stalling charateristics? Or something else?

[Evo7]

**edit - i think i figured it out - it means "tapered" right? just what is "tapered"?


The tapered-wing PA-28s have washout built into the wing - i.e. the angle of attack at the inner wing is higher than at the outer wing. This means that at high angle of attack (at least, in PA-28 terms :) ) the inner wing will stall first so that (a) you maintain aileron control authority as the ailerons are unstalled and (b) if one wing stalls first the turning moment is small, so there is little wing drop. Assuming that is what you were asking... :)

[AerBabe]

Have you been reading Trevor Thom Evo? :D

[Evo7]

Barnard & Philpott, m'dear :)