[2] The PA-28 family of aircraft comprises all-metal, unpressurized, single piston-engined airplanes with low-mounted wings and tricycle landing gear.

The first PA-28 received its type certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration in 1960 and the series remains in production to this day.

[12] Piper has created variations within the Cherokee family by installing engines ranging from 140 to 300 hp (105–220 kW), offering turbocharging, retractable landing gear, constant-speed propellers and stretching the fuselage to accommodate six people.

Karl Bergey,[14] Fred Weick and John Thorp designed the Cherokee as a less expensive alternative to the Comanche, with lower manufacturing and parts costs to compete with the Cessna 172, although some later Cherokees also featured retractable gear and constant-speed propellers.

The extra power made it practical to fly with all four seats filled (depending on passenger weight and fuel loading) and the model remains popular on the used-airplane market.

In 1963, the company introduced the even more powerful Cherokee 235 (PA-28-235), which competed favorably with the Cessna 182 Skylane for load-carrying capability.

[citation needed] In 1964, the company filled in the bottom end of the line with the Cherokee 140 hp (100 kW) (PA-28-140), which was designed for training and initially shipped with only two seats.

This aircraft featured a constant-speed propeller and retractable landing gear and was powered by a 180 hp (130 kW) Lycoming IO-360-B1E engine.

[2][18][19] The Arrow II came out in 1972, featuring a 5 in (130 mm) fuselage stretch to increase legroom for the rear-seat passengers.

The airframe was essentially the same as a fixed-gear Arrow III and was powered by a turbocharged Continental TSIO-360-FB engine producing 200 hp (150 kW).

The company originally produced one variant, the 180-horsepower (134 kW) Archer LX (PA-28-181),[25] and began testing two diesel versions, with 135 and 155 hp.

Beginning with the Warrior in 1974, Piper switched to a semi-tapered wing with the NACA 652-415 profile and a 2-foot-longer (0.61 m) wingspan.

The constant chord is maintained from the root to mid-wing, at which point a tapered section sweeping backwards on the leading edge continues until the tip.

"[32] However, designer John Thorp, who collaborated with Weick in the late 1950s on an early 180 hp version of the PA-28 (with Hershey-bar wings) and was not involved in the later semi-tapered design, publicly disagreed: "Tapered wings tend to stall outboard, reducing aileron effectiveness and increasing the likelihood of a rolloff into a spin.

"[33] Aviation journalist Peter Garrison is also in the Hershey-bar wing camp, claiming that the semitapered shape has a neutral effect on drag: "to prevent tip stall, designers have resorted to providing the outboard portions of tapered wings with more cambered airfoil sections, drooped or enlarged leading edges, fixed or automatic leading edge slots or slats and most commonly, wing twist or "washout".

The trouble with these fixes is that they all increase the drag, cancelling whatever benefit the tapered wing was supposed to deliver in the first place.

[34] The pilot operates the flaps manually using a Johnson bar located between the front seats: for zero degrees, the lever is flat against the floor and is pulled up to select the detent positions of 10, 25, and 40°.

Differential toe brakes on the rudder pedals were an optional add-on for earlier Cherokees and became standard with later models.