The newest top-of-the-line M-Class single-engine Meridian M500 turbine business aircraft has been launched by Piper Aircraft. It is fitted with a number of significant product improvements.
“The 2015 Piper M500 will come equipped with the very newest Garmin avionics package for increased safety,” Simon Caldecott, Piper’s President and CEO, tells Pilot. “As part of our on-going product improvement initiatives, we saw an opportunity to give our customers the latest improvements in proven avionics technology with electronic stability protection, under-speed protection and automatic level mode among other improvements.”
The M-Class aircraft offer Piper performance and safety built on an airframe that has been an industry standard for some time. Three refined derivatives comprise the full line: the Meridian M500, the Mirage and the Matrix. Each product fits its own niche and price point, and each aircraft provides a seamless step-up to the next level. (See the Matrix flight test in the March 2015 issue of Pilot.)
The new Piper M500 seats six in comfortable club seating and is powered by a Pratt & Whitney PT6A-42A 500shp engine. It sports a 260 KTAS / 482km/h max cruise speed and has a range of 1,000nm / 1,852km. The Garmin avionics suite is an improved G1000.
List price for the 2015 M500 is a competitive $2.26 million.
