Piaggio Avanti at our local airport today

I hear if you buy a Piaggio Scooter for $9M they throw in a jet for free

 

They are BEAUTIFUL birds! I have always liked the look of that plane! Never seen one. I was taking lessons at ABIA (Austin's big airport) and saw lots of private jets and planes, but none of those!

James
Austin, TX

 

I'll take two!

 

I have seen two of them. The first at Midland/Odessa International Airport. I did not know what it was but knew it was "really neat". The second one was last week flying over Fort Worth, Texas at about 5K feet. You could make out all the details of it.

Speaking of if you buy the Piaggio scooter for 9M you get the plane free. Back in the 80's there was a Rolls dealership at the entrance to the Midland/Odessa airport. they had a deal with Lear that if you bought the Lear you got the Rolls. I know of three they sold. This was back during a time of the whole west Texas area going great guns with oil and everyone getting rich, for a while.......I don't know how many planes and Rolls went back.....The dealership closed after about 3-4 years.....

 

i have seen a few fly overhead, easy to pick out from the ground, very cool unusual sound...

 

Pardon the ignorance but whats so special about it?

 

Canard platform.
Twin pusher turboprop.
Fuselage is basically a wing.
Efficient.
Ferrari used to shuttle Schumacher around in one.
Goes fast.

But most important of all.......it looks cool. You should have known it was special just by looking at it.

 

+1. I see nothing special about this thing, and actually find it rather ugly.

 

then you don't know what you're looking at. The plane is a 400 kt plane (about the speed of a CJ1) with a 1700 mile range, with a fuel burn about 2/3rds of the CJ1, and more importantly, with a 5'9" headroom. In short, the plane is about the size of a mid-sized jet, with slighly less range, with a fuel burn that is pretty economical. This plane was a break through in efficiency when it came out, and nothing has come along to replace it.

When you think about the insurance requirements in Europe, which apply to jets, but not to turboprops, the two pilot requirement which applies to jets, but not turbo props, etc., this plane costs about 1/2 to operate a comparable jet. Not a bad dead. The only knock is that the plane is too damm expensive. Used ones are all over 3M, and new they are over 8M.

Art