Paul Ivice

Special to TCPalm

VERO BEACH — About 14 months after getting a record-breaking order for 152 trainers from a Chinese company, Piper Aircraft announced Tuesday it received its largest civilian fleet order in company history.

L3 Commercial Aviation placed an order for 240 new Piper aircraft, with the first 26 to be delivered this year, Piper officials said in a news release.

Vero Beach-based Piper has been building aircraft since 1961 at its plant at Vero Beach Regional Airport, but only recently has it been receiving large orders from pilot-training schools.

Simultaneously, Piper announced it has added two value-priced aircraft to its trainer-class line, the Piper Pilot 100 and Pilot 100i. Both aircraft will be available in limited quantities beginning in 2020.

The Pilot costs about 30 percent less than the Archer TX, said Piper spokesperson Jacqueline Carlon.

More:Piper Aircraft sees 'exceptional year' for 2018 production, sales

More:Piper Aircraft in Vero Beach increases sales, staff to accomplish 2017 goals

Piper entered 2019 with an order backlog of nearly 700 aircraft, after delivering 229 aircraft in 2018, a 48% increase over the previous year.

As of February, Piper had 1,009 employees, a 14% increase from a year earlier and more than 10 times the staff of any other manufacturer in Indian River County.

The L3 order will not affect Piper's employment levels beyond what was already planned, Carlon said.

"Knowing that trusted Piper trainer aircraft will once again launch thousands of aspiring pilots' careers around the world,” Piper CEO and President Simon Caldecott said in the release he was delighted to sign the long-term agreement with L3.

More:Indian River State College wins Aspen Prize for community college excellence

L3 Commercial Aviation’s new fleet will support the growing demand for its cadet pilot programs in light of the global shortage of pilots, Piper said in the release.

Geoff van Klaveren, vice president of Airline Academy, which is part of L3 Commercial Aviation, said in the release: “This significant investment in expanding and modernizing our fleet with these brand-new aircraft will help us in our aspiration to provide the highest-quality training while meeting the increasing international demand for new pilots from our airline customers.”

More:Memories of Dodgertown show historic connection to Jackie Robinson Training Complex moniker

The New York City-based company plans to expand and modernize its aircraft training fleet across its Airline Academy pilot training sites. It has 12 pilot training academies in North America, including three in Florida (St. Petersburg, Orlando and Jacksonville); a dozen in Europe, mostly in the United Kingdom; and academies in Thailand and New Zealand.

The new aircraft will be based at L3’s Airline Academies in Florida; Ponte de Sor, Portugal; and the United Kingdom.

The aircraft will be equipped with the latest technology used on commercial jets, providing the appropriate training environment for pilots preparing to work for commercial airlines.

The order includes 19 single-engine Piper Archers and seven twin-engine Piper Seminoles.