Piper PA-35 Pocono
One of Piper's largely forgotten models, their first attempt to move out from the light aircraft market into the small airliner/commuter field.
Taking the Cherokee 6's concept of a low-cost, high-utility airplane, Piper chose to extend the concept into a much larger commuter aircraft. The result was an aircraft obviously from the Piper stable, with a very tubby fuselage was built for 2+1 seating with a central aisle, carrying 18 passengers. Although not explicitly discussed, the fuselage the obvious potential to be lengthened in future growth models.
Piper was known for producing low-cost, but not low-quality, aircraft and a desire to keep the cost as low as possible would be the fatal flaw to the design - as turbine engines were considered too expensive for the Pocono, forcing a reliance on piston engines. The largest available engines were the 8-cylinder IO-720 then also in development. Piper was guaranteed that the engines would be able to deliver 520Hp, but that was never able to be attained, and in reality even that hoped for power was not enough. A windtunnel model was tested with 4 engines, a la Cessna 640, but without larger turbine engines the Pocono was unviable.
The Beech Be99 came to market with turbine engines, and the future of the Pocono was sealed. The anaemic prototype was sent to Poland, where PZL already producing aircraft for Piper, and the hulk is still in existence there.
