Piper PA-46 Malibu Mirage
In its own class
Piper Aircraft certified the Malibu in 1983 with a 310-horsepower Continental engine and delivered more than 400 airplanes. Then the company switched to a 350-horsepower Lycoming engine in 1998 and changed the name to Malibu Mirage.
In 2000, Piper introduced a turboprop version of the PA–46 known as the Meridian with a 500-horsepower Pratt & Whitney PT6A-42 engine while continuing to produce piston models including the nonpressurized Matrix.
Piper added more branches to the PA–46 tree in 2015 with the M600—a 600-horsepower turboprop—and again in 2024 with the M700 Fury, a 700-horsepower version with a top speed in excess of 300 knots.
The design has undergone many structural and avionics upgrades over the years to accommodate more powerful engines, higher speeds, and greater fuel capacity.
The 350-horsepower, turbocharged M350 is the most direct descendant of the Malibu. But all the PA–46 variants, now known collectively as the M-Class, share the same origins.
