Aerostar Ted Smith / Piper

I think that Chuck Lyford is still flying his here in Seattle.

 

I used to operate one, a 601P with a 700 conversion. Very nice airplane, although not in the league of modern turbine singles, from a performance perspective. I consistently got 235 knots on 44 gph, and I never went much higher than FL230.

It was happiest at around FL190.

 

I guess if you compare it to a King Air, it looks pretty good. However, the King Air cabin is much, much bigger.

The Aerostar cabin is really quite small. In theory you can take 6, but realistically I never carried more than 4 (and I removed the 6th seat to give a little more room.

The short field performance was okay, at best-- not comparable to a Turbo Commander, or even a King Air. I'm sure a TBM or PC-12 would be much better.

If you are just going by yourself, or with one other person, it's a very good alternative to a turboprop.

The Aerostar is more demanding to fly than most turboprops. It's fast, and you can't just pull the throttles to idle to slow down, like you can in a turboprop. Furthermore, single engine performance isn't as good, although it is better than most other piston twins, and quite acceptable.

 

I've never flown one, but always wanted too. They just look cool to me. Love that tail....
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Ted Smith designed the A-20 and had a hand in designing the A-26. You can see the resemblance.

 

And he also designed the Aero Commander after leaving Douglas.

 

Yes, you can.

One of the neatest corporate aircraft ever, IMO, was the OnMark A-26 conversion.

One oddity of Ted Smith designs is that they always have strange systems for nose wheel steering.