PIPER AZTEC

The Aztec, later named P-23, is a four-to-six-seat twin-engined light aircraft aimed at the general aviation market. The United States Navy and military forces in other countries also used it in small numbers. Originally designed in the 1950s by the Stinson Aircraft Company, Piper Aircraft manufactured the Apache and a more powerful version, the Aztec, in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s.

The PA-23 was the first twin-engined Piper aircraft, and was developed from a proposed “Twin Stinson” design, inherited when Piper bought the Stinson Division of the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation.

The prototype PA-23 was a four-seat low-wing all-metal monoplane with a twin tail, powered by two 125 hp Lycoming O-290-D piston engines; it first flew on March 2,1952. The aircraft performed badly and it was redesigned with a single vertical stabilizer and an all-metal rear fuselage and more powerful 150 hp Lycoming O-320-A engines.

The same year, Piper produced an upgraded version with 250 hp (186 kW) Lycoming O-540 engines and a swept vertical tail as the PA-23-250, and named it Aztec. The first models came in a five-seat configuration in 1959. In 1961 a longer nosed variant, the Aztec B, entered production. Later Aztecs were equipped with IO-540 fuel-injected engines and six-seat capacity, and remained in production until 1982. There were also turbocharged versions of the later models, which could fly at higher altitude.

Aircraft of similar role, configuration and era are: Beagle B.206, Beechcraft Baron, Cessna 310, Helio Twin Courier, Let L-200 Morava, Partenavia P.68, Piper PA-34 Seneca.