Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche
.jpg) Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche. Photo: Mike Burdett from CROMER, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
| |
| Make | Piper |
|---|---|
| Model | Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche |
| Type | Cabin monoplane |
| Country |  United States
|
| First flight | November 7, 1962 |
| Built | 1961–1972 |
| Number built | PA-30: 2,001, PA-39: 155 |
| Registered in the US | 943 (FAA register, October 30, 2026) |
| Seats | 4–6 |
| Engine | 2 × Lycoming IO-320-B1A, 160 hp |
| Cruise speed | 178 mph (PA-39) |
| Range | 1,200 mi (PA-39) |
| Service ceiling | 20,000 ft (PA-39) |
| Max weight | 3,725 lb (PA-39) |
| Developed from | Piper PA-24 Comanche |
| More aircraft · For sale | |
The Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche is a twin-engine cabin airplane designed and built by Piper Aircraft as a twin version of the PA-24 Comanche. A version with counter-rotating propellers was called the PA-39 Twin Comanche C/R.[1] In the U.S. there are 943 with a valid registration: 861 PA-30s and 81 PA-39s.[2]
History
The Twin Comanche replaced the Piper Apache in Piper's lineup. It is a complex light twin with retractable landing gear and seats for four (six in later models), cruising at 160 to 210 mph on two 160 hp engines, and it competed with the more powerful Cessna 310 and Beechcraft Baron. The prototype was converted from a single-engine Comanche by Ed Swearingen.[1]
With tip tanks it holds 120 gallons of fuel, burns about 16 gallons an hour at a typical 165-knot cruise, and climbs easily to 18,000 ft (24,000 ft turbocharged).[1] Piper built three versions: the original, the B and the C; the six-seat B and C have extra side windows, and turbocharged engines arrived with the B.[1]
Training and safety
In the 1960s and early 1970s the Twin Comanche had a number of loss-of-control crashes at minimum control speed (VMC). The FAA responded with an airworthiness directive changing the VMC speed, though the aerodynamics did not change; aviation journalist Richard L. Collins blamed multi-engine training standards that encouraged risky low-altitude VMC demonstrations.[1]
Registered in the United States
The FAA register lists 943 of these airplanes with a valid U.S. registration. Here they are by the model name the FAA uses.[2]
| FAA model name | Registered |
|---|---|
| PA-30 | 861 |
| PA-39 | 81 |
| PA-30B-160 | 1 |
Specifications (PA-39)
| Item | PA-39 |
|---|---|
| Passengers / capacity | 4–6 |
| Length | 25 ft 2 in |
| Wingspan | 36 ft 9+1/2 in |
| Height | 8 ft 3 in |
| Wing area | 178.0 sq ft |
| Empty weight | 2,270 lb |
| Maximum takeoff weight | 3,725 lb |
| Fuel | 120 USgal (with tip tanks) |
| Engine | 2 × Lycoming IO-320-B1A, 160 hp (air-cooled flat-four) |
| Propeller | Hartzell HC-E2YL-27663-4 |
| Maximum speed | 205 mph |
| Cruise speed | 178 mph |
| Stall speed | 70 mph |
| Never-exceed speed | 272 mph |
| Range | 1,200 mi |
| Service ceiling | 20,000 ft |
| Rate of climb | 1,460 ft/min |
Figures as given in the Wikipedia article and its sources.[1]
Photos
-
Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche. Photo: Ahunt, Public domain -
Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche at Smiths Falls Airport, Ontario. Photo: Ahunt, Public domain -
PA-30 Twin Comanche. Photo: FlugKerl2, CC BY-SA 3.0
.jpg){kind=link}
All photos are from Wikimedia Commons; click a photo for its full credit and license.
Buying a Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Wikipedia, "Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche", read November 1, 2026. Airplane Wiki's text is written in its own words; facts are checked against this article and its sources.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Federal Aviation Administration, Releasable Aircraft Database, file dated October 30, 2026. Valid registrations of fixed-wing airplanes whose FAA maker and model names belong to this family. Airplane Wiki uses only counts from this file, never owner names or addresses.