The Comanche represented a break with the past for Piper, which had built mostly rag-and-tube high-wing airplanes.

In aviation as in life, one can ponder what could have been. If the Susquehanna River hadn’t flooded Piper’s Lock Haven, Pennsylvania factory in 1972, for example, would the venerable Comanche still be a leading light in Piper’s line-up?

There are good reasons to think so. When it first appeared in 1958, the Comanche was a thoroughly modern design, executed with an eye to enduring quality, speed and good looks. It was a radical departure for Piper which, until that point, had built mostly rag-and-tube taildraggers. Here was a sleek, roomy all-metal design with an oval-section fuselage, tapered laminar-flow wing and sharp-edged styling. The looks still turn heads today and a…