Piaggio P.180 Avanti (VQ-BHO)

Hammer head plane. Designed by a committee, but don't ya love the quality of Italian expertise?!

The fastest twin turbo in the air. VQ-B** is Bermuda.

Interesting design.

cool airplane...great picture

Great perspective, great picture. Thank you

Thanks everyone. I didn't expect it to be so popular.

Beautiful aircraft. An airborne Ferrari.

It looks something like a catfish from the front, and with those pusher props, its got an odd sound.

Just because it flies doesn't mean you should build it. Put enough power on a brick outhouse and it'll also fly.

Looks more like a hammerhead shark swimming backwards

I discover...
Did someone read the assembly instructions backwards?
Or returned (left-right...) the plan in the middle of the mounting?
How strange that such a project, at the reverse of everything done before, will go up to a flying plane !

Great photo.
This shows that the Italians aren't only good at building Ferrari's.
The Avanti is faster and has better fuel economy than other turboprops and many midsized jets, with cost efficiency up to 40 percent better than market-competing jets.

Thanks Andrew, great photo.

I fell in love with both the Avanti and the Beech Starship at first sight. Both design teams had the boldness to "think outside of the box", and each came up with a beautiful, elegant aircraft. It's a pity (IMHO) that neither aircraft enjoyed much of a production run. Beech treated the Starship very shabbily.

Crazy fast, for a turboprop. Citation speeds. PT-6-66, 1500hp, 400kt cruise. Starship PT-6-41, 800hp, 250kt cruise. European nice, like a Peugeot.
Salesman from dealer came to our 135 KingAir Charter to sell some. Our owner was afraid no one would get in one.All the pilots loved it!

The Beech Starship was a 320 Kt. airplane. I got to fly one once. Great in turbulence. Brutally loud in rear cabin.

Three-surface design, I'm surprised at the comments here denigrating it.

I love this airplane! Such a beautiful design. I can always tell when one has taken off out of VNY because of the very unique sound of it.

Beautiful aircraft! Flew from Vancouver to Halifax in one. We cruised at 400+ nm/h at FL410. Quiet, very smooth, and almost 6 ft. headroom! No wonder it is called the Ferrari of the skys, not to mention its fuel economy - a big deal on a trip like that, when I'm paying the fuel cost!

Love that "comitte" pun, Jim. Over here we have a saying: a camel is a horse... designed by a comitte!

They sound a lot like a Long-EZ flying overhead. The weird buzz as the prop blades go between the high and low pressure zones...

nszonker--- While I might agree with you on the quiet, smooth flight you had, I can assure you that the thousands of people on the ground that you passed over would disagree. Even in an enclosed building with all doors and windows closed, that plane can be heard from six miles away and for the additional 6 miles to our local airport. Loud and irritating. If it comes over when we are gathered outside, we have to pause conversations until it is well past us. We have many other aircraft pass over us, some noisy but only for a few seconds. The Piaggio is hated by everyone in southern California. Unlike most prop planes that bite into clean air, this one bites into disturbed air from over the canard and wings before it gets to the props. The chopping of that air is what makes it so noisy. So I'm told by experts.

Were you able to do that with only one fuel stop before Halifax?

Great photo af this unique aircraft.

Great photo af this unique aircraft.

[url=http://flightaware.com/photos/view/1276071-658d80b0b308ec729a10a31414e0dd4e6162cb03/all/sort/date/page/1][img]http://photos-e1.flightcdn.com/photos/retriever/d2f3c3bba73ee67a4e9b8f67b8826f895132528b[/img]Photo Courtesy of FlightAware.com[/url]

http://flightaware.com/photos/view/1276071-658d80b0b308ec729a10a31414e0dd4e6162cb03/all/sort/date/page/1][img]http://photos-e1.flightcdn.com/photos/retriever/d2f3c3bba73ee67a4e9b8f67b8826f895132528b[/img]Photo Courtesy of FlightAware.com

Search N191AL for some nice Avanti pics I took by my Varieze bringing it home.

A Piaggio P.180 Avanti passes over my house many times per week. While I agree that it's a spectacular plane from an engineering and aesthetic perspective, it's unforgivably loud.