Piaggio
P.180 Avanti
Photo: Robert Deering 10/20/2009
Orange County Convention Center
Orlando, Florida
Piaggio P180 Avanti

The
Piaggio P180 Avanti is an Italian twin-engine turboprop aircraft produced by Piaggio Aero. It seats up to nine passengers in a pressurized cabin, and may be flown by one or two pilots. The design uses a small forward wing and a main wing combination that places the wing spars outside of the passenger cabin area. Although the front wing resembles a canard configuration, a conventional horizontal stabilizer on the tail provides longitudinal stability and pitch trim. It features a lifting laminar flow fuselage and has engines in pusher configuration.

The Avanti's turboprop engines are placed on a mid-fuselage, high aspect ratio wing, located behind the cabin. The design utilizes both a T-tail and a pair of small, fixed anhedral forward wings that have flaps. The arrangement of the wing surfaces allows the horizontal stabilizer to maintain nearly neutral lift, as opposed to a conventional configuration, where the horizontal stabilizer creates a downward force to counteract the nose-down moment generated by the center of gravity being forward of the aircraft neutral point. This was patented in 1982 as "Three-Lifting-Surface Configuration" (3LSC).  The Avanti II's forward wing flaps automatically descend in concert with main wing flaps. This reduces the force the horizontal stabilizer has to produce to compensate for the pitch-down effect of the wing flap deflection. This allowed both the stabilizer and the main wing size to be reduced for efficiency.  Scaled Composites Triumph was also built with this approach and for this market, but did not go to production.

The forward wing angle of incidence relative to the fuselage is set so it stalls before the main wing, producing an automatic nose-down effect; its five-degree negative dihedral keeps the stream wash interference clear of the engine inlets, the main wing and the horizontal stabilizer.

Cabin cross-section varies continuously along the length of the aircraft; the shape approximates a NACA airfoil section, and the slowly changing curve helps prolong laminar flow on the front of the fuselage. Piaggio claims the fuselage contributes up to 20% of the Avanti's total lift with the front and rear wing providing the remaining 80%. Due to the unusual fuselage shape, the mid cabin is considerably wider than the cockpit. The front and rear airfoils are custom sections designed by Dr. Jerry Gregorek of Ohio State University's Aeronautical and Astronautical Research Laboratory to achieve a drag-reducing 50% laminar flow at cruise. The company claims the overall design of the P180 Avanti II enables the wing to be 34% smaller than on conventional aircraft.

The P180 is known for its fuel efficiency relative to small turbojets that fly in the same speed and altitude range. Flight International stated: "The Avanti has no direct turboprop competitors, its closest jet rivals are the Raytheon Premier I and the Cessna Citation CJ2+... Piaggio says low-drag laminar flow is maintained to around 50% of wing chord, compared with around 20-25% for conventional tractor turboprops where propeller wash disturbs the airflow over the wing... specific air range at high altitude is 3.4km/kg (0.84nm/lb) compared with around 2km/kg (0.49nm/lb) for current jets or 2.7km/kg (0.67nm/lb) for other turboprops."  By this estimate, mileage is 70% better per-fuel-unit than comparable jet aircraft, however this extreme efficiency is achieved only at a relatively slow 315 KTAS and FL410.  P180 Avanti II Specifications now show slightly lower numbers for specific range of 3.1 km/kg (0.76 nm/lb).

As the propeller disks and engine exhausts are located behind the cabin, the interior noise is lower than conventional turboprop aircraft. Piaggio quotes 68 dBA. However, due to the strongly disturbed flow in which the pusher propellers operate, the exterior noise is higher than desirable. The exterior noise level and its higher pitched sound has been shown to be the result primarily of the interaction of the turbine engine exhaust flows and the 5 bladed pusher props (est. +9 dB). The reduction of external noise is an active research topic at Piaggio.  On take off, the Avanti has been measured at 81.9 dBA, slightly lower than the Beechcraft King Air at 82.8 dBA. This is below FAA stage 3 noise limits which set a maximum of 89 EPNdB for take off.  However, the P180 has been the subject of noise complaints at airports such as Naples Municipal Airport, Florida, where the airport authority determined it was the noisiest aircraft using that facility.  Alan Parker, chairman of the Naples Municipal Airport Authority's technical committee, described the Avanti as "irritating loud" and compared the high pitched sound "to fingernails on a chalk board".

SPECIFICATIONS: PERFORMANCE:
Span: 14.03 m (46 ft 0½ in)
Length: 
14.41 m (47 ft 3½ in)
Height:
3.97 m (13 ft)
Empty Weight: 
3,400 kg (7,500 lb)
Gross Weight:  5,239 kg (11,550 lb)
Crew:
One or two pilots and up to nine passenger
Maximum speed: 737 km/h (398 kn, 458 mph)
Cruising speed:
732 km/h (395 kn, 455 mph) cruise at 30,00 ft
Range:
2,795 km (1,509 NM, 1,737 mi)
Service ceiling:
12,500 m (41,000 ft)
Engines: 2 × Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-66 turboprop, 634 kW (850 shp) each
SOURCE: Wikipedia  

P.180 Avanti
Photo: Robert Deering 2/15/2013

San Francisco International Airport
San Francisco, California

Piaggio Aircraft

Piaggio Aero Industries S.p.A. is a multinational aerospace manufacturing company headquartered in Genoa, Italy. Its origins date back to the former Rinaldo Piaggio S.p.A. company, making it one of the world's oldest airplane manufacturers. Piaggio Aero Industries was established in its current form in November 1998, when a group of shareholders headed by Piero Ferrari and Josč Di Mase acquired the assets of Rinaldo Piaggio.

Piaggio Aero Industries designs, develops, constructs and maintains aircraft, aero-engines and aircraft structural components. It has a subsidiary in the United States, Piaggio America, located at West Palm Beach, Florida.

Piaggio was founded in Genoa in 1884, originally outfitting ocean liners and manufacturing rolling stock for the developing railway infrastructure at the turn of the century. Due to financial gains in this industry, Rinaldo Piaggio was able to build a factory in 1906 in Final Marina. Today, the site of Piaggio's facility is in Finale Ligure, where Piaggio Aero began to manufacture aircraft and aircraft engines.

The 1920s served as an important time in the company's history when, Piaggio Aero brought on Giovanni Pegna and Giuseppe Gabrielli, two aeronautical engineers, to help develop Piaggio's aeronautic line. Together they created modern technical solutions for aviation, that brought forth the design and build of the world's first helicopter.

Senator Rinaldo Piaggio died in 1938, at 71 years old, thus ending the Rinaldo Piaggio era. When the battles of World War II left the company's facilities in ruins, it was Rinaldo's sons Enrico, inventor of the Vespa motor scooter, and Armando, who began the rebuilding process.

1948 was the year Piaggio launched the Piaggio P.136, a twin-engine seaplane, that was operated by the Italian Air Force, when liaison transport missions were needed. Due to the increase of basic aircraft training, the German Luftwaffe ordered 265 Piaggio P.149 units in 1953. By 1957 Piaggio created the Piaggio P.166 light transport aircraft that was marketed and produced for the military and civilian personnel worldwide.

In 1960, Piaggio, under the license of the Rolls Royce Viper and started manufacturing jet engines. This move led to the expansion of Piaggio's current business.

In 1966, the company separated into two separate entities, one was Vespa motor scooter and the other Piaggio Aero. Though one focused on the developments of the motor scooter and the other on aeronautical, both companies still maintain the Piaggio name.

By 1998, the assets of Rinaldo Piaggio S.p.A. exchanged hands and a group of entrepreneurs headed by the Di Mase and Ferrari families and Piaggio became Piaggio Aero Industries. This acquiring of assets brought Piaggio Aero Industries back to its roots, as a designer and producer of business aircraft.

In 2006 Mubadala Development Company, acquired a 35% stake Piaggio Aero Industries S.p.A. Mubadala Development Company is a wholly owned investment vehicle of the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.

In 2008, the Indian multinational conglomerate the Tata Group acquired a one-third stake in Piaggio Aero Industries, becoming one of the primary shareholders alongside Ferrari and Di Mase families and Mubadala Development Company. As part of the acquisition Tata gained the right to appoint three of the nine seats on the board, and one of the three seats on the management committee

AIRCRAFT

  • Piaggio P.2 (single-engine low-wing single-seat monoplane fighter prototype)
  • Piaggio P.3 (four-engine biplane night bomber prototype)
  • Piaggio P.6 (reconnaissance floatplane)
  • Piaggio P.7 (high-wing racing monoplane for the 1929 Schneider Trophy seaplane race; unflown) it:Piaggio P.C.7
  • Piaggio P.8 (single-engine parasol wing single-seat reconnaissance floatplane)
  • Piaggio P.9 (single-engine high-wing two-seat monoplane)
  • Piaggio P.10 (single-engine three-seat biplane floatplane)
  • Piaggio P.11 (licensed copy of the Blackburn Lincock)
  • Piaggio P.16 (three-engine heavy bomber)
  • Piaggio P.23 (four-engine commercial transport prototype)
  • Piaggio P.23R (three-engine commercial transport prototype)
  • Piaggio P.32 (twin-engine bomber)
  • Piaggio P.50 (four-engine heavy bomber)
  • Piaggio P.108 (four-engine heavy bomber)
  • Piaggio P.111 (high-altitude research aircraft)
  • Piaggio P.119 (single-engine single-seat fighter)
  • Piaggio P.136 (amphibian flying boat)
  • Piaggio P.148 (two-seat primary/aerobatic trainer)
  • Piaggio P.149 (four/five-seat utility/liaison or two-seat trainer, also known as Focke-Wulf FWP-149D)
  • Piaggio P.150 (two-seat trainer)
  • Piaggio P.166 (utility light transport)
  • Piaggio P.180 Avanti : business aircraft
  • Piaggio PD-808 (twin-jet light utility transport)
  • Piaggio P1XX (under development)

Source: Wikipedia