The aircraft's fuselage was the same cross section as the propeller-driven Piper PA-46 series, with a 4 feet (1.2 m) increase in length.

Initially, Piper designers incorporated an automatic pitch trim system to coordinate horizontal stabilizer angle of incidence with power setting.

[4] This system was later replaced by a vectored thrust nozzle, developed by Williams International, which resulted in reduced weight and simplified manufacturing processes.

[6] A selling price of US$2.199 million in 2006 dollars was initially set and as of February 19, 2007, Piper announced that it had received 180 pre-orders.

[9] Piper had been tooling up its facilities in Vero Beach, Florida (USA) to build four Altaire prototypes to be used for FAA (safety & performance) certification of the aircraft through 2013.

[9] The fuselage of the original Piperjet was designed using the Piper Meridian single-engine turboprop as a template.

The new owners of Piper, Imprimis, found fault with this design prompting a revision without direct reference to the Meridian.

The next day, on 18 October 2011, AVweb editor-in-chief Russ Niles called for the project to be ended, calling it "unrealistic" to pursue the design in the face of Federal Aviation Administration opposition to certifying a single engined jet to 35,000 ft (10,668 m) and the lack of economic reasoning as the aircraft would cost the same as most twin-engined jets.

"[11][12] On 24 October 2011, despite the Altaire's development being "on schedule and on budget", the program was indefinitely suspended by Piper due to economic issues, with the company laying off a number of workers who had been assigned to the project.