The Piper PA-24 Comanche is an American single-engine, low-wing, all-metal monoplane of semimonocoque construction with tricycle retractable landing gear and four or six seats.

Together with the PA-30 and PA-39 Twin Comanches, it made up the core of Piper's lineup until 1972, when the production lines for both aircraft were destroyed in the 1972 Lock Haven flood.

In 1958, it was joined by a higher-powered PA-24-250 with a 250 hp (186 kW) Lycoming O-540-A1A5 engine; this model was originally to be known as the PA-26, but Piper decided to keep the PA-24 designation.

[5] The original version of the Comanche was the PA-24-180, which featured a carbureted 180 hp (134 kW) Lycoming O-360-A1A engine, swept tail, laminar flow airfoil, and all-flying stabilator.

The aircraft specifications were for cruise speeds of 116 to 139 knots (215 to 257 km/h) and fuel burns between 7.5 and 10.5 gallons per hour (28 and 40 L/h) at 55 and 75% power settings, respectively.

[citation needed] In 1958, Piper introduced a 250 hp (190 kW) version using a Lycoming O-540 engine, giving the PA-24-250 Comanche a top cruise speed of 160 kn (180 mph; 300 km/h).

To prevent possible aft center-of-gravity problems due to the increased gross weight and its fifth and sixth seats, the propeller shaft was extended.

The Comanche 400 is powered by the 400 hp (298 kW), horizontally opposed, eight-cylinder Lycoming IO-720 engine, developed specifically for the model.

[10] While identical in planform to other PA-24 models, the 400 is structurally strengthened, primarily in the tail, with an extra nose rib in the stabilator and the vertical fin.

The stabilator, vertical fin, and rudder of the 400 share virtually no common parts with the 180, 250, or 260 hp (190 kW) Comanches.

The prototype, powered by a 260 hp (190 kW) Lycoming O-540 engine and equipped with Twin Comanche landing gear, was designated the PA-33.

Having removed the interior seats and replaced them with fuel tanks, Conrad flew nonstop from Casablanca, Morocco, to Los Angeles, a distance of 7,668 mi (12,340 km).

On November 24–26, 1959, Conrad flew a Comanche 180 on a distance record flight in FAI C1-C Class for aircraft taking off at weights from 2,204 lb (1,000 kg) to less than 3,858 lb (1,750 kg) that still stands: Casablanca to El Paso, Texas, 6,966 mi (11,211 km) nonstop, a distance of 6,967 mi (6,054 nmi; 11,212 km), in 56 hours 26 minutes.

[12][13] He set a closed-circuit distance record in the same aircraft on July 4–6 November 1960, flying 6,921 mi (6,014 nmi; 11,138 km).

[14] In July 1964, Henry Ohye, flying a 1961 PA-24-250, made the first successful trans-Pacific flight from the United States to Japan in a single-engined aircraft.