"Piaggio is alive and ready to take on the market," declared Piero Ferrari at NBAA yesterday. Ferrari is executive vice-chairman of the eponymous, world famous sports car manufacturer, and heads up a group of investors who took control of troubled Rinaldo Piaggio Spa in November 1998. The Italian company, now reborn as Piaggio Aero Industries, has successfully relaunched all its core activities including aircraft and aero-engine manufacture and maintenance.
Relaxing under the gaze of a P.180 Avanti -- without question the best-looking aircraft at the show, in the opinion of this reporter -- Ferrari spoke to Show News about his role in the acquisition of Piaggio and his plans for the future.

"Perhaps the most important thing to point out is that Ferrari's involvement in Piaggio is my personal involvement only, not the company's. On the other hand Ferrari completely supports these ties with Piaggio. I own 10% of Ferrari and the rest is in the hands of FIAT and the Agnelli family. But they also own Piaggio's Vespa motorcycle business, so there are good ties between us all."
"About a year ago a group of friends and I decided to step in and help Piaggio, which we could see was in trouble, and get it back into the market. Though I am no expert in aviation, I understand a lot of the technology having had a background in Formula 1 racing for 25 years."

"I got involved because I believe any company can survive if it has knowledge, image and product. Piaggio certainly has knowledge. It has been building aircraft for 80 years. It certainly has image, but this was clouded by money worries. And the product, the P.180, well it's the best in its class. We mustn't forget the P.166 either, even though it's a mature design. It's still selling to operators like the coast guard and police."

The question of branding is one of the strongest surrounding the Ferrari/Piaggio relationship right now, and Piero sees obvious synergies "I know a lot of the people who can afford a Ferrari can afford an Avanti, and I know a lot who would want to," Ferrari said. "The P.180 has its own style, it's driven by aerodynamics of course, but it's still instantly recognizable, just like a Ferrari."
Will Ferrari's famous "prancing horse" symbol be appearing on Avantis? "No, not yet, but in the future perhaps they can be more closely related," Ferrari said. "It would be an obvious combination of Italian technology and Italian style. Right now we have to get the Avanti firmly back into production, because it's a great aircraft. We are reinvigorating Piaggio's engine business and getting back into the military market which our previous government owners denied us.

"Being here at NBAA is important," Ferrari continued. "I am very impressed by the scale of the event and I can see you have to be here."

Piaggio delivered its first Avanti in May 1990, but since then it has delivered only 32 aircraft, due largely to customer fears regarding the parent company's future. Between 1993 and 1997 state-owned Piaggio operated under the Legge Prodi, Italy's equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The recapitalization of Piaggio Aero Industries has led to an upsurge in its fortunes. Next year Piaggio will build a minimum of 16 new aircraft--it has firm orders for 14 and expects more. The production line at Genova has the capacity to build four aircraft a month and production rates are expected to rise to 22 in 2001 and 26 in 2002. As reported in Show News yesterday, Piaggio is now looking at several developed versions of the Avanti including a Williams jet-engined version, a stretched jet version and even a 19-seat airliner design.