Deliberately Mysterious YouTube Video Signals Potential Announcement

Piper, who hasn't exactly been vocal of late, has started speaking up... via a mysterious YouTube video posted Friday.

Outside of the video, itself, the description, only says, "This will change everything. For everyone. Forever. Keep an eye on our page to see how aviation history will be made."

The video, just under 30 seconds in length, shows an orange jump-suited test pilot walking out to what appears to be an M600 airframe, with a parachute slung over his shoulder, to head out on a flight that is taking place at 0433... an ungodly hour... even for test flying... unless you don't want to be seen. The aircraft, N524LT, is seen taxiing out under cover of darkness whereby the video starts raising the hype with pronouncements like...

"Coming Soon" and...

"This Changes Everything"

"For Everyone"

"Forever"

Yup... no hype there... not one little bit (grin).

The Aero-Verse is already weighing in and the smart money indicates that Piper seems ready to take on the TBM and maybe even Cirrus's lackluster 'near-jet', the troubled SF50. Mind you, a little more horsepower under the cowl might let you have a bird with the speed and pressurization capabilities to give TBM a run for its money (versus the rugged and speedy TBM 940)... so could this be the first shot over the bow with an eventual announcement for a Piper M700? Flightaware shows the airplane has recently been busy... and undeniably speedy.

We're also curious as to who came up with this campaign... Piper has some great folks working for them, but one or two of the folks in the marketing group don't work and play well with the media, and don't seem this inventive. If they are, we're glad to see they woke up. This could be a cool campaign... which hopefully leads the way to an even cooler airplane.

FMI: www.piper.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6DqkOA_sWQ&feature=youtu.be