The Malibu Turns 21

A birthday celebration for the airplane that invented the concept of the pressurized cabin-class single

By Bill Cox

You start to feel your age a little when you can clearly remember the introduction of an airplane that’s now 21 years old. The new model party for the 1984 Piper Malibu was a major event in Vero Beach, Fla. It was, after all, the first all-new general-aviation airplane in at least a decade.

In fact, as if in defiance of renowned author George Orwell’s prediction, 1984 was one of Piper’s most optimistic years. The company premiered three other new models that year: the Cheyenne 400LS, Mojave and Aerostar 700.

The Malibu was a revolutionary machine for Piper, the company’s first attempt to field a pressurized single in direct competition with Cessna’s successful P210N. The latter was an adaptation of a design that had been around for nearly two decades, and although it had a six-year head start on Piper’s entry, it fell well short of the PA-46 Malibu’s performance. Cessna had attempted to inflate what was essentially a box rather than a tube, and the P210N wound up with a pressurization differential of 3.35 psi, offering only a 10,000-foot cabin at 20,000 feet. Still, it was pressurized, the only such single-engine model on the market.

In contrast, the Piper Malibu was designed from the outset for pressurization. Maverick designer Jim Griswold equipped Piper’s all-new airplane with a 5.5 psi system, worth an 8,000-foot cabin at 25,000 feet. Griswold also concentrated on reducing drag so the Malibu could cruise at least 20 knots quicker than the P210N.

Another Malibu advantage was the airplane’s large cabin, as generous as a Navajo Chieftain’s in width and height. Specifically, the Malibu cockpit measured 491⁄2 inches across by 47 inches tall, dwarfing the Pressurized Centurion’s comparatively cramped dimensions.

In total, it was an attractive machine, an exciting, new, low-wing design with none of the smatterings of old technology. Even at an introductory price of $275,000, nearly $70,000 more than the previous year’s Cessna P210N, the first pressurized Piper single realized instant success.

One result of the new Piper’s introduction was that Cessna didn’t even bother to offer a 1984 model of the P210N. Instead, the Wichita, Kan., company concentrated on updating the airplane to the P210R and premiered the new model in 1985. The R incorporated a number of improvements, most notably, a horsepower increase from 310 to 325, a foot more wing per side, a fuel increase from 90 to 115 gallons and a boost in gross from 4,000 to 4,100 pounds to accommodate the extra weight.

Unfortunately, despite excellent performance, it was too little, too late. Piper sold some 200 PA-46s in the first two years, and Cessna only managed to sell 40 P210Rs. The Pressurized Centurion expired with the shutdown of all Cessna piston production in 1986.

Regardless of a fizzling market and growing product liability awards, the Malibu somehow soldiered on and became, at one point, a puzzling contradiction. In the early ‘90s, the PA-46 was both the best-selling single-engine airplane in the world and, at the same time, Piper’s only product. In fact, the Malibu is the only Piper model that has managed to maintain continuous production since 1984. By the time you read this, the Malibu will be (forgive me) old enough to vote.