Spartan College of Aeronautics has signed on the dotted line for 32 Piper training aircraft. The college, headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but with locations around the American West, provides training in a number of aviation disciplines. It sees future growth in flight training and took the opportunity to rebuild its fleet with Pipers, and it includes one special Archer. More on that in a second.
The purchase is a big deal for Spartan, which is looking to get a share of what it hopes is a reenergized flight training market, and flying in general, to get back to something resembling normal. In a press release, Spartan CEO Rob Polston noted, “Since 1928, Spartan has trained and changed the lives of more than 100,000 pilots and mechanics serving in civil and military careers. With the purchase of these aircraft, we are re-committing ourselves to Tulsa and Oklahoma.”
Piper’s Jackie Carlon told Plane & Pilot that Spartan has already taken delivery of 22 of those planes (20 Archers and 2 Seminoles) and plans to put 10 more Pipers on the flight line this coming year.
The noteworthy airplane? None other than the 5,000th Archer from Piper, which Piper handed over to Spartan on Thursday. In its early days, the 180-hp Archer was a power upgrade of 25 or 30 hp from the more popular Warrior, but in recent years the plane has pushed its 160 hp teammate aside and become the most popular Piper. It competes directly with Textron Aviation’s Cessna 172 Skyhawk, and the aircraft are similar in many regards, though not in their basic configuration—the Archer boasts a high-wing configuration, and the Archer, a low-wing design.
