Aircraft model
PIPER PA-31T3
Everything here is true of every aircraft of the type, not of any one aircraft.
The PA-31T3 is the T-1040: an unpressurized commuter aeroplane built by bolting the Navajo Chieftain's ten-seat fuselage to the Cheyenne I's wing, tail and PT6A-11 turboprops. Piper built it for the third-level airlines in the early 1980s, when a nine- to eleven-seat turboprop that did not need a pressurisation system was exactly what a short-haul operator wanted, and it never sold in large numbers.
It is a specialised aeroplane and it prices accordingly: cheap for a turboprop twin, expensive to keep, and hard to sell to anyone who is not running a schedule. The absence of pressurisation is the defining limitation — it works at the altitudes a commuter flies and nowhere above them. Two PT6s set the running cost, the Chieftain fuselage is familiar to every maintenance organisation that ever touched a Navajo, and the combination means parts are easier to find than the production numbers suggest.
Compare with…
Put PIPER PA-31T3 side by side with up to two other models.
- PIPER PA-31T3
What it is
| Seats | 11 |
|---|---|
| Landing gear | tricycle |
| Engines | 2 |
| Engine | Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-11 |
| Horsepower | 500 hp |
| Fuel | JetA |
| Certification basis | FAR23 |
| Production start | 1982 |
| Production end | 1984 |
| Endorsements required | complex;high-performance;multi-engine |
Performance
| Cruise speed | 236 KTAS |
|---|---|
| Range | 883 nm |
| Service ceiling | 28,200 ft |
| Climb rate | 1,750 ft/min |
| Stall speed (Vso) | 72 KCAS |
| Takeoff over 50 ft | 2,444 ft |
| Landing over 50 ft | 2,263 ft |
Load and fuel
| Seats | 11 |
|---|---|
| Useful load | 4,093 lb |
| Full-fuel payload | 2,083 lb |
| Max takeoff weight | 9,000 lb |
| Empty weight | 4,907 lb |
| Usable fuel | 300 gal |
| Fuel burn at cruise | 80 gal/h |
Cost of ownership
| Price, low | $450,000 |
|---|---|
| Price, high | $850,000 |
| Prices as of | 2026 |
| Engine TBO | 3,600 h |
| Overhaul cost, low | $290,000 |
| Overhaul cost, high | $440,000 |
The fleet and its record
| Registered, all time | 23 |
|---|---|
| Active fleet | 2 |
| Median year built | 1983.5 |
| NTSB events, last 10 years | 1 |
| Fatal events, last 10 years | 0 |
| Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years | — |
| Personal-flying events per 1,000 active | — |
| Ownership transfers, last 24 months | 0 |
| Transfers per 100 active | — |
| Airworthiness directives | 4 |
| Directives, last 5 years | 0 |
| Rate confidence | none |
Peer scores6
| Peer class | Fixed wing multi-engine, turbo-prop, 2 engines, 7+ seats |
|---|---|
| Accident record | —1 |
| Severity | —2 |
| Access | 0 of 103 |
| Support | 1.2 of 104 |
| Liquidity | —5 |
- Accident record: class median 13.13 · 24 models in class.
- Severity: class median 31.67.
- Access: class median 5,500.
- Support: class median 59.
- Liquidity: class median 22.37.
- Each of the five categories places the model within its peer class, from 0 (the worst of the class) to 10 (the best): a position among comparable models, not a grade. The overall score is the sum of the categories shown that are scored, out of 10 for each (50 when all five are); it is given only when at least 4 of the five are scored, and it can be set against another model's only when both are in the same peer class and scored on the same categories.