Piper Cherokee

PA-28 Cherokee
Piper PA-28-236 Dakota
Role	Civil utility aircraft
Manufacturer	Piper Aircraft
First flight	14 January 1960
Introduction	1960
Status	In production
Produced	1961–present
Number built	32,778+
Unit cost	US$457,725 (PA-28R-201 Arrow, 2016)

The Piper PA-28 Cherokee is a family of light aircraft built by Piper Aircraft and designed for flight training, air taxi, and personal use. The PA-28 family of aircraft are all-metal, unpressurized, single-engine, piston-powered airplanes with low-mounted wings and tricycle landing gear. They have a single door on the copilot side, which is entered by stepping on the wing.

The first PA-28 received its type certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration in 1960, and the series remains in production to this day. Current models are the Warrior, Arrow and the Archer TX and LX. The Archer was discontinued in 2009, but with investment from new company ownership, the model was put back into production in 2010.

The PA-28 series competes with the high-winged Cessna 172; and the similarly low-winged Grumman American AA-5 series and Beechcraft Musketeer designs.

Piper has created variations within the Cherokee family by installing engines ranging from 140 to 300 hp (105-220 kW), offering turbocharging, retractable landing gear, constant speed propeller, and stretching the fuselage to accommodate six people. The Piper PA-32 (initially known as "Cherokee Six") is a larger, six-seat variant of the PA-28. The PA-32R Saratoga variant was in production until 2009.

At the time of the Cherokee's introduction, Piper's primary single-engined, all-metal aircraft was the Piper PA-24 Comanche, a larger, faster aircraft with retractable landing gear and a constant-speed propeller. Karl Bergey,Fred Weick and John Thorp designed the Cherokee as a less expensive alternative to the Comanche, with lower manufacturing and parts costs to compete with the Cessna 172, although some later Cherokees also featured retractable gear and constant-speed propellers.