What have I just seen?
Discussion
Aircraft has just flown overhead, inner city Birmingham. Drew my attention because it was very noisy.
It had two prop engines, mounted on the wings, but 'facing backwards' (forgive the lack of technical parlance
). It also had a small "tailplane" mounted on the nose.
It was larger than the average private light aircraft, possibly Learjet size, and despite not flying low it did seem very noisy.
It had two prop engines, mounted on the wings, but 'facing backwards' (forgive the lack of technical parlance
). It also had a small "tailplane" mounted on the nose.It was larger than the average private light aircraft, possibly Learjet size, and despite not flying low it did seem very noisy.
Loved the starship too!
The Piaggio is an attempt to bridge the gap between the Turboprop and VLJ markets
Turbo props have better lower-level climb/speed/fuel burn than a Jet so better/faster than a jet on short routes, they can also operate out of shorter runways (usually)
The Jets do higher-level and longer routes faster, are quieter in the cabin, and eaiser to do engines-running embark/disembarkation.
So The Piaggio tries to give all the benefits of the Turbo-props whilst being quieter in the cabin, and having a higher speed than a King Air or Pilatus-type Turbo-prop for short-medium routes. Another benefit is that with the wings set further back the cabin is bigger/longer with less intrusion by the wing spar structure.
Of course it is neither fish nor fowl, still isn't a jet (which is important to some people) and rather noisy from the outside...hence they have not been uber-successful, but it is still nice to see a company having a go and trying to do something different!
The Piaggio is an attempt to bridge the gap between the Turboprop and VLJ markets
Turbo props have better lower-level climb/speed/fuel burn than a Jet so better/faster than a jet on short routes, they can also operate out of shorter runways (usually)
The Jets do higher-level and longer routes faster, are quieter in the cabin, and eaiser to do engines-running embark/disembarkation.
So The Piaggio tries to give all the benefits of the Turbo-props whilst being quieter in the cabin, and having a higher speed than a King Air or Pilatus-type Turbo-prop for short-medium routes. Another benefit is that with the wings set further back the cabin is bigger/longer with less intrusion by the wing spar structure.
Of course it is neither fish nor fowl, still isn't a jet (which is important to some people) and rather noisy from the outside...hence they have not been uber-successful, but it is still nice to see a company having a go and trying to do something different!
Depends, when I used to use a Hawker 800 Corporate jet (those were the days!) we would sometimes pick up some customer representatives from one airport and then stop off at another to pick up some more on the way to the Executive Briefing Centre in Cork, ground handling would just bring the customers out to the aircraft and board them whilst the engines were running so we could get off again quickly (did that in Southend)
Brum's been rather "good" for noisy turbo props today
I saw an Antonov late morning ( I think, wasnt really taking notice) then this afternoon yet another noisy de Havilland Buffalo type popped overhead
I am fortunate to live under the front door, in Streetly, for south facing landings.
Wish I'd seen the Piaggio, it's been ages since the last time I "bagged" a Piaggio
(bagged! Blimey the things we did when we wus kidz)
I saw an Antonov late morning ( I think, wasnt really taking notice) then this afternoon yet another noisy de Havilland Buffalo type popped overhead
I am fortunate to live under the front door, in Streetly, for south facing landings.
Wish I'd seen the Piaggio, it's been ages since the last time I "bagged" a Piaggio
(bagged! Blimey the things we did when we wus kidz)
There is a massive Piaggio facility at Genoa airport and I guess they go there for fixing, it always makes me laugh when I go past on my way in to the marina, as you can see right in the shed and the people, equipment and general arse scratching, smoking and coffee drinking looks identical to the shipyard up the road. before I saw this, I always presumed that planes were built and maintained in clinical surroundings by boffins in white coats, well these ones are not.
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