Look up Beech Skipper and Piper Tomahawk, visually nearly
identical. There was some industrial espionage with an
employee named Piper working for both companies.


Beech had a prototype flying in the mid 70s with out the T
tail, then added the T tail. Piper started the PA38 in the
late 70s and delivered over 1,000 airplanes before Beech did
their first one.


"Dave Doe" wrote in message
. nz...
| In article yKNYg.4751$XX2.3882@dukeread04,
p51mustang[threeX12]
| @xxxhotmail.calm says...
| There were reported cases of both breaking. Piper built
all
| the PA38 aircraft in a rush in order to beat Beech to
the
| market. Many of the airplanes were junk.
|
| Interesting. I thought they built it in competition to
the Cessna. I
| know that a known potential weak point was in the T-tail,
where the
| thing is welded onto the control actuator (hope I've got
that right). I
| was told to always check that weld as best I could w' ma
naked eye for
| cracks.
|
| --
| Duncan