I knew about Avanti's before Studebakers...

[rjohnston79]

But only because my first job out of school had me designing fuel pumps for the Piaggio Avanti

[StudeRich]

Somehow I don't think Piaggio's have Avanti FUEL PUMPS! Lol!

Neat looking plane, have they sold any yet or is it still experimental?

When I worked at Northrop Aircraft we had a fleet of the old big heavy Piaggio high wing (tanks) with the big radial pusher props that flew daily every few hours from the Main Plant in Hawthorne Calif. to the Palmdale Assembly Plant and the Edwards Air Force base flight test Group.

They must have been dependable old birds they had to be early 60's Aircraft and were still flying in the 1990's.

[Chris Pile]

Piaggio Avanti's have been around almost 20 years.
They had a small assembly plant here in Doodah, and that's how I came to be acquainted with its sexy form.

[rjohnston79]

Yes, its a very unique plane... very quiet and fuel efficient. I think it was 19 years ago I was working on the project for Pratt & Whitney Canada, and I have to say the design still looks current today (much like the REAL Avanti LOL) Wiki says: The first prototype flew on 23 September 1986. U.S. and Italian certification was obtained on 7 March 1990. The 100th aircraft was delivered in October 2005 and the 150th in May 2008.

[JBOYLE]

When I worked at Northrop Aircraft we had a fleet of the old big heavy Piaggio high wing (tanks) with the big radial pusher props that flew daily every few hours from the Main Plant in Hawthorne Calif. to the Palmdale Assembly Plant and the Edwards Air Force base flight test Group.

They must have been dependable old birds they had to be early 60's Aircraft and were still flying in the 1990's.

It was called the P.166 and were used quite a bit overseas, including the Italian and South African military.
They also made a seaplane version, the P136, and were sold here as Royal Gulls in the 50s by Trecker machine corp .

The Avanti and aircraft part of Piaggio (famous for their Vespa scooters) is controlled by Enzo Ferrari's son.

When I was in Texas, an Avanti was based in Abilene for an owner in Austin.
I saw it fly a couple of times, it sounded weird like pushers (Beech Starship and the old Cessna Super Skymaster) tend to do.

Also, I recently saw one at the airport in Nice, France. It looked at home on the French Riveria.

Great looking plane. it would be fun to have one to go with my Avanti.
Anyone got $10 million to spare?

[j.byrd]

jboyle, we wanted one of those to go with our Avanti also. The money was a bit short (by several million), so we looked at an Avanti boat, but got an Avanti refrigerator at a yard sale instead. Didn't quite seem the same. I have been working aircraft jobs since 68, and have not seen one in person, but have a beautiful ad so I can still wish. The Vespa connection was always a bit funny to me, loved my Vespa, but it would seize if you ran it wide open- - -wondered if I hit 100% on a climb with the plane if I could glide long enough for it to cool before re-starting like the Vespa always would- - -Ha!! Yep, beautiful plane. John