Piper PA-47 “Piper Jet” by Amodel

1/72 scale
Kit No. 72343
Price: $36.99
Decals: One pre-production version
Comments: Engraved panel lines and recessed rivet detail; above average cockpit detail but no cabin parts whatsoever; part for cockpit windscreen may require skill at seam-hiding

History

The Piper PA-47 “Piper Jet” was an ultimately abandoned attempt by Piper Aircraft to produce a single-engined very light jet (VLJ) to an active market for such aircraft. However, the project was hampered by ballooning development costs and an economic downturn. As sound a product as it was, the PA-47 never made it into serial production despite having secured some 180 pre-orders from various international customers. After a project review by the company, the PA-47 was abandoned in October 2008 in favor of the externally very similar Piper Jet Altaire.

The Altaire had a larger, rounded fuselage mounted on top of an expanded-chord wing. A shorter vertical empennage was located slightly aft, on top of an elongated engine nacelle. The new configuration provided a somewhat roomier cabin, nine inches taller and four inches wider than the earlier PiperJet design. In addition, the Altaire had a three-foot-wide cabin door. The sole PA-47 prototype made the rounds of several air shows during its brief time in the limelight. It first flew on July 30, 2008 and Piper planned to place it into production in early 2010. Unfortunately, Piper would ultimately cancel the Piper Jet program in October 2011.

Simon Caldecott, CEO of Piper Aircraft at the time, was quoted as saying that “The market for light jets is not recovering sufficiently and quickly enough to allow us to continue developing the [PiperJet] program under the economic circumstances we face.” It was simple economics: development costs had risen above what was deemed recoverable in the market for very light business jets at that time. Upon its cancellation, the Piper Jet had a price tag of $2.7 million per unit.

The PA-47’s primary competition was the Cessna Citation line and Eclipse Aerospace EA500. The PA-47 featured a sleek, compact single-engine airframe with a tricycle undercarrage and the cockpit situated behind a long, pointed nose cone. Garmin provided the avionics suite with an all-digital, all-glass console. Its swept-back wing mainplanes were just aft of amidships and tipped with upward canted winglets, with a single vertical tail and a pair of low-set horizontal stabilizers rounding out the control surfaces.

The engine was unusual due to its position, integrated into the base of the vertical tail with a straight-through duct design, similar to that seen on the McDonnell Douglas DC-10. Fitting the engine aft in this way altered the PA-47’s center of gravity but made for a quieter ride for passengers. It could seat six or seven passengers with two flight crew — although very light jets could be certified for single pilots in civilian airspace. The PA-47 had a top speed of 416 mph and a ceiling of 36,089 feet, and featured a range of 1,494 miles. It was powered by a single Williams FJ44-3AP turbofan capable of 2,820 pounds of thrust.

The cancellation of the Piper Jet may have been caused in part by rising development costs associated with directional stability problems, which can be triggered by airframe configurations involving a single, dorsally mounted turbojet powerplant. Whatever the ultimate cause, with the cancellation of the PA-47 light aviation lost an innovative addition to its community from a distinguished manufacturer of small private aircraft.

The Kit

Amodel’s Piper Jet is injection molded in grey plastic and comes on five sprues, one of which (Sprue E) is clear and consists of the forward windscreen, eight cabin windows and four position lights. The kit consists of 84 parts, with exterior surfaces that feature engraved panel lines and recessed rivet detail. In the cockpit, a decal is provided for the main instrument panel and there are dual bomber-style control wheels, individual pilot and co-pilot seats bearing engraved detail, separate sidewalls (although they are plain) and a rear bulkhead. While the cockpit detail may be slightly above average, the kit makes no provision for cabin seating, so the area aft of the cockpit is simply open space.

As is typical of Amodel kits, there are no locator pins on any of the component parts, so modelers will have to take care when aligning them as they are being cemented together. That said, the only real challenge during construction appears to be the windscreen, which is a fairly large part consisting not merely of the clear sections for the cockpit windows but the cockpit roof as well. A key virtue is that the engraving delineating the clear sections is very definite, which will facilitate painting. This part will require a bit of skill at seam hiding with the appropriate putty (I have found Tamiya white putty works best) and sanding, and protecting the clear parts from damage during both this process and subsequent painting. There are separate parts for the intake fan and exhaust for the dorsally mounted turbojet, as well as for the upturned winglets at each end of the straight wing.

Patience will be required in the final stages of construction when mounting not just the landing gear, but the multitude of ventrally mounted actuator housings for the wing flaps and the handful of blade antennae. The instructions are generally well laid out and call out Humbrol paint colors only. A single color plate on semi-gloss paper is provided to assist with painting, and although it identifies the paint for the bottom half of the fuselage as Sea Grey, to this modeler’s eye it looks more like a Gloss Blue Grey once manufactured by Testors in its line of 1/4 ounce (7.5ml) paints. The color plate indicates a paint scheme of White over Sea Grey on the fuselage, White wings with Sea Grey leading edges, and Blue winglets. The elevators are to be painted White overall. The leading edge of the vertical tail is white with a Light Grey leading edge, and the lip of the jet intake is Polished Aluminum.

Markings

Finally, the kit markings have a solid, semi-gloss appearance and are fully in register. They demonstrate the steady improvement in the quality of Amodel decals in recent years, and should not present modelers with undue difficulty. Some of the markings are long and thin — these can be challenging, because the paper backing often does not maintain sufficient stiffness once exposed to water. I have found that fashioning a separate “sliding board” of sheet plastic that is cut to be slightly larger than the decal dimensions, and sanded to smoothness, helps get the markings on target undamaged.

Conclusion

An interesing kit that is an intriguing “what if” in the world of civil aviation. Highly recommended.

References

• Aircraft International Online ~ ainonline.com
• militaryfactory.com
• forcastinternational.com