What Happened to the Piston Twin?

FLYING Staff

Tuesday, February 05, 2008 at 10:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The piston twin aircraft market has drastically declined since its 1979 peak, largely due to the debunking of the long-held myth that twins were inherently safer than single-engine aircraft.
High operating and insurance costs, coupled with a significant reduction in multiengine training availability, made piston twins less economically viable and accessible.
Modern high-performance single-engine aircraft now offer comparable speed and advanced safety features, effectively replacing twins in the market, while the "step-up" niche has shifted to single-engine turboprops and jets.
Pilot perceptions have evolved, with new pilots no longer aspiring to "step up to a twin" and trusting the reliability and redundancy of modern single-engine aircraft.

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The year 1979 was the last big year of aircraft shipments. Almost 18,000 were sold that year. About 3,000 of those airplanes were piston twins. Today, any single that sells 534 units a year is red hot. In 1979, that’s how many Seneca twins Piper sold. If the piston single business looks lethargic when compared with the good old days, the piston twin is practically extinct. Beech builds a few Barons, and Piper some Senecas and Seminoles, mostly on special order. The Diamond Twin Star, which is a diesel twin, and the Adam 500 are just coming on line. In 1979 there were 33 different piston twins on the market.

So, what happened? Why did piston twins virtually go away? Will they come back? It is an interesting story.