The Piper M500, A Perfect First Turboprop | Aviation Week

The Piper M500 is presented as the evolved successor to the Meridian turboprop, backed by long-time Meridian enthusiast Mike Borden. As founder of High Performance Aircraft at Gillespie Field in San Diego, Borden says the Meridian “got me excited about Piper again,” and he runs an independent service center that handles about 70 aircraft annually. The article recounts how the Meridian launched in 1997 as a light, pressurized, six-place turboprop with a 1,000-nm range and a 260-kt cruise speed, but early deliveries in November 2000 lacked features such as known icing approval and required numerous service bulletins. Over time, updates included a gross weight increase via vortex generators, autopilot upgrades, and later glass and cabin revisions before the M500 rebadge in 2015.