Piaggio P.180

At the 1983 NBAA convention in Dallas, Texas, Piaggio announced the birth of a new twin turbo-powered business aircraft. Design work on the P.180 Avanti had begun at Piaggio's Genoa headquarters in 1979. Seating six to 10 passengers it was a radical depsrturc from anything the company had previously produced, while utilising the experience gained from building other pusher-types such as the P.166. The major design feature of the aircraft is its use of three lifting surfaces. The main wing is fitted above the mid-set position in the fuselage, with the main spar running behind the passenger cabin. Its straight leading edge is broken only by the engine nacelle inlets and the wing has a slight dihedral of 2°. The T-tail and elevator act as the second lifting surface, in addition to being orthodox control surfaces. Theforeplane, however, is not a simple canard, but provides a positive lift component in addition to that produced by the wing. This in turn allows the wing to be reduced in size, thus decreasing overall weight and drag. The engines were originally specified as Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-66A turboprops, but these were later changed in favour of more powerful PT6A-61s. Each drives a five-bladed Hartzell fully-feathering reversible-pitch propeller with spinner. The engines are mounted in composite-material nacelles. The Avanti makes considerable use of composites, if not to the same degree as the rival Beech Starship, for example. Carbonfibre and a Graphite/ Epoxy mix represent about 10% of the aircraft's weight, and all of these components are built by Sikorsky arid Edo. Wings and tail sections are produced by Piaggio at Genoa, while the forward fuselage is the responsibility of Piaggio Aviation in Wichita. Final assembly is completed in Italy. Aircraft intended for the American market are flown 'green' to the US to a specialist outfitters and there are plans to eventually assemble all aircraft in the United States.

The cockpit is fitted with a Collins EFIS system, comprising three CRTs and Col-lins navigation and weather radar systems are standard. The aircraft is certified for single pilot operations. The main cabin is pressurised and air conditioned, is fitted with a galley and folda-way tables. An emergency exit is situated at the front on the starboard side with the airstairs on the port side. In 1983 Gates Learjet became a partner in the project, but withdrew for economic reasons in January 1986. All the tooling and the forward fuselages of the three pre-production Avantis which were on the line at Wichita, were then transferred to Italy. Assembly of the first P.180 began on Piaggio's Finale Ligne plant in 1986 and the first flight was made on 23 September 1986 (I-PJAV). This was followed by the second aircraft (I-PJAR) on 14 May 1987. The Avanti was certified by the Italian authorities in March 1990, and in May of that year the first production aircraft was rolled out. The final hurdle of US certification was passed in October 1990 and the first customer delivery took place the following September. By early 1993, despite or perhaps because of its radical appearance and advanced design, only 20 Avantis had been delivered.

lxbfYeaa, e-mail, 14.03.2024 Ted Marek

20

reply