Piper Cheyenne III I-CGTO at Coventry, England, in 1982. · "I-CGTO Piper PA-42 Cheyenne III, Coventry 1982" by Rob Hodgkins, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Piper · Turboprop
Cheyenne III (PA-42)
First of the larger T-tail PA-42 Cheyennes, built 1980–1983 before the improved IIIA.
The Cheyenne III delivers near-290-knot cruise, a 33,000 ft ceiling and strong pressurization for well under King Air 200 money. The catch is age: thin factory parts support, early systems Piper later fixed, and a firm 15,000-hour fuselage life limit.
Buy it if
You want a fast, pressurized twin for one to five passengers on 300–1,000 nm trips, are trained to fly it single-pilot or will hire a pilot, and can work with a Cheyenne specialist shop.
Skip it if
You need a stand-up cabin or an enclosed toilet, want easy factory parts support, or plan to fly many hours a year in an airframe already near its 15,000-hour fuselage limit.
Biggest compromise
Support and airframe life. Piper's parts support for this model is thin, with owners reporting four- to five-week waits, and the fuselage must retire at 15,000 hours.
The numbers that matter
Purchase price
$450K
typical asking · $450K–$549K
What it costs per year
$551K
at 300 hrs · one professional pilot
How far it flies
2,200 nm
997–1,200 nm with passengers
How fast
288 kt
high-speed cruise
Seats
6
6 typical (up to 9)
Pilots needed
1
Certified for one pilot; most owners fly it single-pilot.
Price
What one costs to buy
Typical asking price
$450,000
Where asking prices sit
Low
$450K
Typical
$450K
High
$549K
Most asking prices fall inside this band.
Other sites
Priced vs call
with a price / call for price
Three of five listings show prices, from $450,000 to $549,000. Published guide values run higher, about $680,000 to $1.01 million.
Price vs its family and alternatives
Scroll to explore · select a jet for details
Cheyenne III (PA-42) · This aircraft
$450K
The least expensive here; next up is the Cheyenne II (PA-31T).
For sale now
None listed right now
Cost to own
What it costs per year to run
300hours / year
Per year
Per flight hour
Estimate — your operator will quote actual numbers.
Fuel, maintenance and engine overhaul savings rise as you fly more. One professional pilot, hangar and insurance stay the same however much you fly.
Where the money goes
Partial estimate- One professional pilot$114,40021%
- Hangar$24,0004%
- Insurance$17,5003%
- Fuel$200,43036%
- Maintenance$112,50020%
- Engine overhaul savings$81,99915%
Fuel is the biggest single cost at 36% of the total.
The JetGrade
65 out of 100 — Below its class average
Peer group: Beechcraft King Air 200, Cessna Conquest II (441), Mitsubishi MU-2 Marquise, Gulfstream Commander 1000
Seven categories at a glance
- - - 70 = typical— This aircraft
Strongest on range & payload, weakest on reliability & support.
Grades are editorial opinions about the model, not any specific aircraft. Sponsors and affiliates have no input. Reviewed 2026-10-08.
Where it flies
Sample trips and reach
Typical trips on a map
Nonstop
Depends on weight or weather
Fuel stop likely
Out of reach
3 of 8 sample trips are comfortable nonstops.
Sample flight times
- 1.1 hr
Carlsbad → Las Vegas
205 nm · Short hop, well within range
- 2.8 hr
Carlsbad → Aspen
625 nm · Mountain airport; depends on weight and weather
- 3.3 hr
Santa Ana → San José del Cabo
765 nm · Comfortable nonstop with four passengers
- 3.8 hr
Teterboro → West Palm Beach
900 nm · Nonstop with four aboard in typical winds
- 4.9 hr
Dallas → Teterboro
1,190 nm · Near its four-passenger limit; winds decide
- 6.1 hr
Teterboro → San Juan
1,410 nm · One stop, typically in Florida
- 8.7 hr
Carlsbad → Teterboro
2,100 nm · One stop, typically mid-continent
Los Angeles → Honolulu
2,215 nm · Ocean crossing beyond its range with reserves
Lineage
What came before and after
1980–1983
Piper Cheyenne III (PA-42)
Longer fuselage, T-tail and 720 shp PT6A-41 engines.
What changed from the Piper Cheyenne II (PA-31T)
- 720 shp PT6A-41 engines replace the Cheyenne II's smaller PT6A-28s, mounted farther outboard.
- T-tail replaces the conventional tail, so no stability-augmentation system is needed.
- New, longer fuselage; only the cross-section and outer wing panels carry over.
- About five feet more wingspan, now 47 ft 8 in over the tip tanks.
- Takeoff weight up to 11,200 lb with the optional engine-nacelle fuel tanks.
- Bigger cabin plus baggage lockers in the engine nacelles, a first for a turboprop.
Size and cabin
How big it is, inside and out
Outside
Silhouette · scaled to length
Length
Wingspan
Height
Inside the cabin
Cabin length
Width
Height
Compare
How it stacks up
This aircraft
Cheyenne III (PA-42)
- JetGrade
- 65
- Price
- $450K
- Cost per year
- $551K
- Range
- 2,200 nm
- Speed
- 288 kt
- Seats
- 6
- Cabin length
- 18′ 1″
- Pilots
- 1
- Years built
- 1980–1983
← Before
- JetGrade
- 69
- Price
- $435K–$540K guide
- Cost per year
- $505K
- Range
- 1,510 nm
- Speed
- 283 kt
- Seats
- 5
- Cabin length
- 8′ 5″
- Pilots
- 1
- Years built
- 1974–1981
After →
- JetGrade
- 66
- Price
- $700K–$1.09M guide
- Cost per year
- $737K
- Range
- 1,763 nm
- Speed
- 305 kt
- Seats
- 6
- Cabin length
- 18′ 1″
- Pilots
- 1
- Years built
- 1984–1993
Alternative
- JetGrade
- 72
- Price
- $1.28M
- Cost per year
- $729K
- Range
- 1,490 nm
- Speed
- 289 kt
- Seats
- 6
- Cabin length
- 16′ 8″
- Pilots
- 1
- Years built
- 1974–1981
Alternative
- JetGrade
- 72
- Price
- $1.36M
- Cost per year
- $671K
- Range
- 2,000 nm
- Speed
- 314 kt
- Seats
- 7
- Cabin length
- 12′ 10″
- Pilots
- 1
- Years built
- 1977–1986
- Beechcraft King Air 200 instead: Taller cabin, far stronger parts support and easier resale, at more than twice the typical asking price.
- Piper Cheyenne IIIA (PA-42-720) instead: Same airframe with PT6A-61 engines, a 35,000 ft ceiling and the fuel-control, electrical and air-conditioning fixes; higher engine costs.
- Cessna Conquest II (441) instead: A Garrett-powered rival from the same years; compare cabin room, parts support and engine overhaul costs.
Gold marks the best figure in each row.
Owning one
What to know before you buy
Engines & inspections
2 × Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-41 · 720 shp each
No APUEngine hours until overhaul
- Nose baggage door directive · 1,000 hr
- Engine hot section inspection · 1,800 hr
- Propeller overhaul · 3,000 hr
- Engine overhaul · 3,600 hr
- Fuselage life limit · 15,000 hr
- Annual inspection every 12 months
Pratt & Whitney Canada's SMART program gives hot-section credits for the PT6A-41. Some engines use MORE Company's condition-based program to stretch overhaul intervals.
Known issues
15,000-hour fuselage life limit
The fuselage must retire at 15,000 hours; most aircraft for sale have 8,000–11,500, which limits future use and resale.
Thin factory parts support
Piper lost some original tooling in 2004 hurricanes, and owners report four- to five-week waits for some parts.
Early fuel, electrical, cooling problems
Fuel-control, electrical and air-conditioning problems led Piper to introduce the IIIA; check what has been upgraded on each aircraft.
Pre-buy checklist
0 of 10 checked
Piper still holds the type certificate, but owners lean on Cheyenne specialist shops such as Friend AirCare in Washington, Pennsylvania. PT6A engine support is broad, with overhaul shops across the country.
Review
The full review
Strengths
- Fast for the money: about 286–290 knots at maximum cruise and a 33,000 ft certified ceiling.
- 6.3 psi pressurization holds about a 6,500 ft cabin at 25,000 ft, among the best of its era.
- Strong load-carrying: about 2,250 lb maximum payload and 800 lb of baggage space in four compartments.
Limitations
- Cabin is about 4 ft 3 in tall, so passengers stoop, and the toilet is a curtained, belted seat.
- Fuselage is life-limited to 15,000 hours; most aircraft for sale already show 8,000–11,500.
- Thin factory parts support: owners report four- to five-week waits for some Piper parts.
The Piper Cheyenne III (model PA-42) was Piper's first big-cabin twin turboprop. Announced in 1977 and delivered from June 1980 through 1983, it kept the smaller Cheyenne II's fuselage cross-section and outer wing panels, stretched the fuselage and wing, added a T-tail and fitted two 720 shp Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-41 engines. Piper built 89 before switching to the Cheyenne IIIA, which kept the airframe but changed the engines and reworked several systems. The faster, Garrett-powered Cheyenne 400LS followed on the same airframe.
Pilot's take
Pilots describe the Cheyenne III as easy to fly, and its T-tail did away with the stability-augmentation system the Cheyenne II needed. Climb is strong at about 2,200 fpm on two engines and roughly 530 fpm on one. Cruise planning works best in the mid-20s up to 29,000 ft, where about 270 knots comes on roughly 77 gallons an hour; running at full speed lower down burns far more. Check loading on every trip, since the long cabin can move the balance toward its limits. Older panels add single-pilot workload, so the quality of the avionics retrofit matters as much as the engine times.
Who this is for
An experienced owner-pilot or small company flying three to six people 300–1,000 nm at a time, with a purchase budget under $600,000, who values speed and pressurization over cabin height, easy support and resale.
Ask about this aircraft
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