Piaggio Avanti P.180 Is Back at NBAA With New Sales Organization

NBAA marks the return of the Piaggio P.180 Avanti to the U.S. market and the rollout of a new U.S. service and sales organization. The newly formed Piaggio America company will be located in Greenville, South Carolina, and is announcing a service agreement with a US-based support organization, as well as unveiling its new logo.

Piaggio CEO Jose di Mase said at July's Farnborough show that the U.S. market was a key reason to reopen the Avanti production line. "The economy is booming in the U.S., and the major companies are booked two to thee years ahead, so there is room for a good product now." Piaggio sees 80% of its potential market in the U.S.

Piaggio Aero Industries acquired the aerospace assets of the Rinaldo Piaggio company last year, and appeared at the Atlanta NBAA meeting. During 2000, it will deliver 12 of the roomy, jet-speed (Mach 0.67/395 knots), twin-pusher transports, including two to Ferrari (the company's president, Piero Ferrari, is the son of the eponymous founder of the car manufacturer, but there is no direct connection between the two companies) and two aeromedical transports to Greece. Production is to build to 21 units in 2001 and 26 in 2002.

Piaggio America CEO Steve Hanvey says that the Avanti is attracting all kinds of customers, from single-pilot Baron and Conquest owners to corporate flight departments impressed by its large cabin. "It has Citation performance with turboprop efficiency and a Hawker-sized cabin," he says. Other selling points include turboprop field performance and low noise, inside and out.

So far, no major changes have been introduced in the new-production aircraft, although Piaggio is in the process of certificating a higher maximum Mach number (0.70) and a 170-pound increase in fuel capacity. The higher Mach number can allow a faster and more efficient descent, adding 50 to 75 nmi in range. The aircraft is being delivered with a glass cockpit similar to many current aircraft, but a switch to a more modern flat-screen suite is a possibility if the market warrants such a change.

Fully equipped, the Avanti sells for $4.5 million-about the same as a King Air B200 and between Cessna's CJ1 and Bravo. But the cabin is more than a foot higher than that of the turboprops, speed is essentially the same as that of the straight-wing jets, and it burns 100-110 U.S. gallons per minute at 395 knots. (Piaggio may be the only company here to be happy about rising fuel prices.)

The Avanti, unlike the contemporary Beech Starship, is not a canard in the true sense. The primary goal of the design was to combine a large cabin with a small, efficient, high-speed wing. The basic configuration was chosen to place the wing in the mid-position behind the cabin, reducing drag and landing gear weight and providing maximum cabin space. The wing was configured for maximum efficiency, with a special laminar flow section designed by Ohio State University. Pusher propellers keep the airflow over the wing clean, and keep noise away from the cabin. (Legend has it that Piaggio's historical preference for pushers came from an early chief designer, who had trained as a naval architect and had never seen a ship with its propeller on the front.) The Avanti's wing is no bigger than that of a Cessna 172, and is fitted with large and effective Fowler flaps. The small forward wing provides some lift to reduce the download on the tail, and carries flaps which counteract the nose-down pitching moment from the wing flaps.