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The Piper PA-28-161 Warrior II is a low-wing, single-engine monoplane built by Piper Aircraft as part of the wider PA-28 Cherokee family, developed for flight training, air taxi work and personal use. It represents Piper's 1978 upgrade of the original Warrior to a 160 horsepower powerplant, and remains a familiar sight on flying club ramps and in flight simulation as a benchmark trainer type.
The PA-28-161 Warrior II is a low-wing, tricycle-gear, single-engine light aircraft produced by Piper Aircraft as a member of the long-running PA-28 Cherokee family. It was designed for flight training, air taxi operations and personal flying, and the Warrior II designation identifies the 160 horsepower variant of the line.
The Warrior II emerged from Piper's PA-28 Cherokee family, which was conceived as a light aircraft for flight training, air taxi and personal use. In 1978 Piper upgraded the original Warrior to a 160 horsepower engine, redesignating the type PA-28-161 and renaming it the Cherokee Warrior II. The same basic airframe was later offered with a glass cockpit as the Warrior III, which continued to be marketed primarily as a training aircraft.
The Warrior II is a low-wing monoplane with fixed tricycle landing gear. Production aircraft of the type have been fitted with the Lycoming O-320-D3G engine, a four-cylinder horizontally opposed unit, driving a fixed-pitch propeller such as the Sensenich unit found on individual examples. The airframe follows the established PA-28 Cherokee layout, built around a simple, robust structure intended for training and touring use.
The type line runs from the original lower-powered Warrior through to the PA-28-161 Warrior II, which introduced the 160 horsepower engine in 1978 under the Cherokee Warrior II name. Piper later produced the Warrior III, the same basic airframe fitted with a glass cockpit and marketed principally as a training aircraft.
The Warrior II has served widely as a flight training aircraft, as well as in air taxi and private personal flying roles, reflecting the original design brief for the PA-28 Cherokee family. Individual airframes remain active in general aviation fleets, with examples continuing to be maintained, refurbished and sold into flying club and private ownership.
The Piper PA-28 Warrior II has been modelled for FlightGear as what is described as an accurate and complex recreation of the Piper PA-28 series, reflecting the type's enduring popularity as a study-level trainer subject for simulation. Its straightforward fixed-gear, fixed-pitch layout and its real-world role as a primary trainer make it a natural choice for pilots using simulators to practise basic handling, circuits and instrument procedures.
