Ferrari of the Sky?

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That's a goofy looking thing.... what is the manufacturer?

Jedi

 

Piaggio Aero's P180

 

Saw one flying the other day and forgot how unique it sounds.... like a chain saw cutting it's way across the sky.

 

Great airplane. They are a beautiful sight to see in person.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaggio_P.180_Avanti

Cruises at 320 knots, pressurized, twin turboprop.
Can carry up to 9 people. Roomier than most business jets.

The Ferrari branding relationship comes from the ownership of Piero Ferrari in Piaggio Aero.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaggio_Aero

Some background info on Piero Ferrari:

Piero Lardi Ferrari (born 22 May 1945 in Modena, Italy) is the second and only living son of Enzo Ferrari and presently 10% owner of the Ferrari automotive company. He is also currently the vice-president of the Ferrari automotive company. His mother was Enzo's mistress, Lina Lardi, and he was not acknowledged as a Ferrari family member until the death of Enzo's wife, Laura, in 1978. His legitimate half-brother, Dino, died in 1956 of muscular dystrophy.

Piero Lardi Ferrari has been awarded in the year 2004 of the title of Cavaliere del Lavoro. He also possesses a degree in engineering. He is married and lives in his father's old residency in Modena.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vSiiE2cyuc&feature=related

I got a ride from San Jose to Las Vegas in a Beechcraft Starship, That's as close as I'll come to an Avanti ride most likely.

 

A Starship is a bit of a rarity nowadays, only about four left if I remember correctly.

 

At one of the last Ferrari Challenge events held at Road Atlanta, a number of companies associated with Ferrari had vendor tents, and Piaggio was one of them.

 

Very cool! Top speed is 400 kts or 460 mph! Laminar flow wing like a P-51 Mustang.

 

The Avanti is cool, although IMO it looks like a giant catfish on the ground.

 

Serious?? I see those quite often and i think they are gorgeous!!

 

One of the advantages of the design is that the fuselege shape itself produces a fair amount of lift.

The prop sound on it and the Beech Starship is from the pusher props 'chopping' the sound waves (sort of). Unique.

 

That they are. There are a couple that fly in regularly to the DFW area. One flies into ADS (Addison Airport, north Dallas) and the other flies into DTO (Denton Municipal, about 30 miles north of Dallas).

I got to roam through the one at DTO a year or so ago. My daughter and I were waiting on our Angel Flight passenger when this thing rolled in. We were admiring it and it the crew invited us in to take a look.

Interior is nothing spectacular, but like the Pilatus, interior is determined by the customer. Nice, sleek airplanes.

 

More: quoting myself...

There are both a Piaggio and a Starship based here in the Denver area (different airports) both fly regularly (even the Starship, who's landing pattern is over my office. I can hear it coming; sounding so different and can step out the door to watch it fly over).

 

There's one that flies into and out of San Jose, CA (SJC). I've heard it twice now while loading crap into the car at the Target shopping center near the airport. The first time, I looked up as I was thinking, "What the hell is that?!"

The second time I heard it (well before I saw it), and thought, "Here comes that Piaggio again, I bet!" and sure enough, it was.

 

KDTO is the location of Jet Works Air Center. They are a service center for the Avanti and have done the original outfitting of them for a series of years. One that they just outfitted was in delivery process about 2 weeks ago when I was there.

Interestingly they were telling me that on one of the Avantis they polished the leading edges instead of painting and the speed went down. I take it as an indication of how good the laminar airflow of the wing must be for that to be a true statement.

Jeff

 

There is a fractional that uses them-- AvantAir.

 

Saw one of these flying over the hose this morning. Kept looking for an ultralight wondering who would be crazy enough to fly one in weather like this when I finally saw it go over at 5000ft or so. Sounded like a snowmobile.

 

Boy, doesn't look very deadstick friendly...

 

High performance never is.....................