The World's Fastest Turboprop-Engined Business Aircraft, Nicknamed the Ferrari of the Sky; Can It Be Turkey's Entry Plane to the Civil Aircraft Industry?
The Piaggio P180 Evo is actually the world's most stylish business jet with only propellers. It's been optimised so that a single pilot can fly it.
The world's fastest turboprop-powered commercial aircraft is the Piaggio P180 Avanti EVO. This aircraft can reach a top speed of 402 knots (462 mph), which is quite impressive for a turboprop. It is designed for business travel and offers a spacious cabin with seating for up to 8 passengers.
Turboprop Business Aircraft Competing with Jets ‘Fuel Stingy’ But the Fastest Turboprop Aircraft ‘Ferrari of the Sky’ Piaggio P180.
The Piaggio P180 Evo does not compete with turboprops, it even competes with business jets, surpassing those in its category. It delivers business travellers to their destinations faster at costs 40% below the business jet. The Piaggio P180 Evo is the world's most stylish business jet with only propellers.
It travels twice as fast as the fastest Ferrari, holds more luggage than an SUV and can carry its eight passengers more than 1,700 miles above 40,000 feet in whisper-quiet cabin comfort.
It has been qualified to be flown by a single pilot.
The Piaggio P180 EVO is equipped with cutting-edge technology that reduces the pilot's workload, so much so that it has even been scanned to fly with a single pilot, a certification issued by civil aviation authorities, not an easy document to obtain for business jets.
The Piaggio P180 is actually a business jet, but we call it a business aircraft because it does not fly with a turbojet or turbofan engine.
According to its operators; this aircraft is also a fuel stingy aircraft. It offers a jet-like performance with a 40% lower fuel cost than an equivalent business jet, because; it is designed to fly the largest cabin, with the least fuel, in the fastest way.
So what is the importance of Piaggio P180 for Turkey?
Italian Piaggio Aerospace, which designed and manufactured the Piaggio P180, was acquired by Baykar, a Turkish company and the world's largest designer and manufacturer of UCAVs (see Ref.1&2).
Baykar will continue to further develop Piaggio's existing operations. Among these, of course, will be the acceleration of the commercial success of the 180.
More reasonable offers will be made for the P180's demands from Turkey.
Will the Piaggio P180 Enable Us to Enter the Civil Commercial Aircraft Manufacturing Industry?
Turkey's geographical size does not, in our opinion, create a sufficient favourable market share for the design and construction of civil commercial aircraft (see Ref.-3 for details).
However, with the cooperation of Piaggio Aerospace and Baykar, the design and production of a light commercial aircraft that can find a sufficient market in Turkey, neighbouring countries and island countries, especially Indonesia, and similar geographies can be started in Turkey.
Can Italy contribute to this process? It is difficult, because ATR, which has a very large market in the short-haul regional aircraft category, which is most suitable for our entry into the civil aircraft industry, is an Italian and French joint venture.
The similar aircraft to be developed by Piaggio and Baykar will rival ATR's ATR 42 & ATR 72 aircraft.
I believe that the development of the design concept of the Piaggio 180 will make a significant contribution to Turkey, which has started the national design and production process in military aircraft and is the world leader in the category of unmanned armed aircraft, to enter the civil aircraft design and production process.
References
1. What will Turkish Baykar's acquisition of Italian Piaggio bring to Baykar and Piaggio?
2. Baykar's Acquisition of Piaggio will be an Important Milestone in the Strategic and International Growth of the Turkish Aircraft Industry.
3. Turkey can become one of the world's commercial aircraft giants. Cizre Based Aircraft Industry Complex Proposal.
