Plane & Pilot 2017 Buyer’s Guide: Single-Engine Piston Planes

Newcomers, upgrades, and old favorites: 20 piston singles for 2017.

Plane & Pilot

Tuesday, January 31, 2017 at 08:13 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The market for piston singles offers a diverse range of aircraft, from newly updated models and all-new Part 23-certificated designs, encompassing everything from 120-knot taildraggers to pressurized six-place screamers.
Modern piston singles are characterized by significant advancements in avionics, with many featuring sophisticated Garmin G1000 NXi or G3000 touch-controlled suites that enhance safety and user experience.
The Cirrus SR22 G6 remains the best-selling piston single, known for its updated avionics and whole-airplane parachute, while competitors like the Piper M350, Cessna TTx, and Mooney Acclaim Ultra offer specialized features such as pressurization, higher speeds, or improved cabin comfort.
Enduring classic models, including the Beechcraft G36 Bonanza, Piper Archer, and Cessna 182 Skylane, continue to be produced and updated, balancing their proven reliability with modern technology for various personal and training niches.

See a mistake? Contact us.

Piper Matrix

What do you get when you take a pressurized Mirage piston single, take out the pressurization system and price it hundreds of thousands less than the Mirage? A Matrix. Here’s why. The most popular plane in the world is the Cirrus SR22, right? So with the Matrix you get a huge cabin in comparison with room for six (four in club seating configuration in back), SR22-like 213 knots top speed, the Garmin G1000 panel with all of its safety enhancements and an operating profile like other non-pressurized turbocharged singles, so four-seater pilots feel confident stepping up. It’s brilliant. And the Matrix, with its huge 120-gallon capacity, has a range of better than 1300 nm: by far, the best in class. With the big panel of the PA-46 line, the Matrix also has the room for a giant 15-inch multifunction display in the center, bigger than any display in its class.

Niche: Premium retractable-gear piston

Base Price: $899,000

Competitors: G36 Bonanza, Cirrus SR22, Cessna TTx

Read our Piper Matrix pilot report.

Piper Matrix Specifications

Learn more at Piper Aircraft.