Plastic Pilot

Bill Piper Jr., the last member of the Piper family to head up the firm, died on the 24th of August, at age 96. In these hard days, I want to address all my sympathy and support to the Piper family, and all of his relatives and friends.

Bill Piper Jr. was the son of Piper’s founder, Bill Piper Sr, and he’s been president of the company until the family lost control of it in the late 70’s. Bill was still active in the Piper foundation, and was a member of the Piper Aviation Museum’s board of directors. For more details, you can find a detailed biography and personal info in a paper from “The Express“.

On a more personal tone, I consider myself as kind of a Piper guy… Most of my privately flown hours have been logged in the PA28 and PA32 families. However this sad event is also marking a bit more of the changes going on in general aviation since a few years.

Piper, Cessna, Beechcraft and Mooney have been around for decades, but for a few years, other competitors popped up, like Columbia, Cirrus and Diamond, amongst other. These recent companies bring a new way of building aircrafts. It is not the place or time to discuss which is good or bad, but this death could mark the end of an era.

Bill Piper Jr. left us for his last trip, and once again, all my thoughts go to his family and all those of us who are so deeply touched and affected by this loss for all the aviation community.