VERO BEACH — Sales of Piper Aircraft Inc.’s planes lost altitude during the first quarter, dropping 49 percent compared with the first quarter of 2008.

The Vero Beach-based plane maker shipped 22 planes worth $20.8 million from January through March, down from 43 planes worth $33.2 million during the same period last year, according to figures released Tuesday by the Washington D.C.-based General Aviation Manufacturers Association.

Piper’s results mirrored trends across the industry, which reported a 41 percent drop in shipments.

Tags: Aircraft, beach, Piper, Plane, planes, sale, sales, trend

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Economy, Indian River County, Treasure Coast business, Vero Beach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.