Strange Aircraft...

[JJM]

Any idea what this is?

I spoted it while in Monterey, California a few weeks ago...

[whitechief]

Looks like a Piaggio P180.

[JJM]

Cheers, was stumped as to what it was.

[Simpo Two]

Does that configuration confer any advantages or is it just a gimmick?

[snowmuncher]

I would imagine its quite agile

[thatone1967]

Simpo Two said:

Does that configuration confer any advantages or is it just a gimmick?

Makes it fking ugly!

[snowmuncher]

Wasn't one used in a Jame Bond film ? ...

[BigS]

They sound like a Vespa too

[topsparks]

They make a bloody racket,one regularly flies over my yard on approach to RAF Northolt,it flew over today actually,my dog barks at it even more than when 2 Apaches fly over!.Think its a Beechcraft.

Edited by topsparks on Thursday 14th October 22:18

[zollburgers]

It's the airplane equivalent of what a spider looks like after hitting it with a shoe.

[thatone1967]

Don't / didn't the Ferrari F1 team use one of these?

google say yes!

Edited by thatone1967 on Thursday 14th October 22:45

[XG332]

Definitely an UFO.

[anonymous-user]

It is a Piaggio Avanti, and it is pretty cool (and loud!). There are some advantages to this configuration, such as cabin layout, including floor height - get the floor as low as possible to give the maximum cabin height. This is only possible because the wing centre box is out of the way. The main advantage that it confers is that it stands out from the rest of the designs in its class. Just like the Beech Starship. Such a shame the Starship was ahead of its time.

[635djimmy]

I saw two planes similar to this flying in formation the other day, also incredibly loud that I thought could have been a Piaggio, after looking up Beech starship from 'coandas' post I'm sure it was one of them. Both lovely looking aircraft

[Eric Mc]

The canard configuration also confers some more benign stalling characteristics over conventional layouts.

[dr_gn]

coanda said:

There are some advantages to this configuration, such as cabin layout, including floor height - get the floor as low as possible to give the maximum cabin height. This is only possible because the wing centre box is out of the way.

Surely this is offset by presumably having the main wing spar completely obliterating the rear 1/3 of the cabin?

It looks an absolute abortion of a thing to my eyes.

Edited by dr_gn on Friday 15th October 14:12

[Tango13]

Two quotes have always stuck in my mind about cannards, the first is from a technical conference in 1987 when a couple of engineers were discussing where the best place to put the cannard was. A third engineer stood up and made the comment...

"In the view of General Dynamics, the optimum location of a cannard is on somebody else's airplane"

The second is from Ben Rich...

"Birds fly well and I've never seen a bird yet with it's tail in the front"

[Eric Mc]

Ironically, the term "canard" stems from the fact that the set-up makes the aircraft look a bit like a duck ("Canard" being the French for duck).

[strudel]

Eric Mc said:

("Canard" being the French for duck).

You can say that again bruv.

[Waynester]

Burt Rutan had a knack of designing 'unusual' shaped aircraft/spacecraft..