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The Piaggio Avanti, created by the Italian-based company Piaggio Aero, is a uniquely-shaped turboprop aircraft which comfortably seats seven passengers in its stylish, stand-up cabin. Due to the use and placement of rear-facing push engines and an acoustic blanket encompassing the cabin, the Avanti is one of the quietest aircraft in its class.Passengers can stand up straight and move about freely in the Avanti’s spacious, pressurized cabin. The oversize, stuffed leather seats are arranged in a four-place club layout with a forward divan and a fifth individual seat. An enclosed private lavatory and a small refreshment area are available for passenger comfort. An onboard Aircell phone includes fax capabilities and a data port to keep business moving as usual.The baggage capacity of the Avanti can be compared to that of a large SUV, with 44 cubic feet of space available for golf bags and other business necessities.The design allowing for such a luxuriously sized cabin comes from the innovative use of three flying surfaces—the canard foreplane, rear-located main wing, and a T-tail. The canard acts as a horizontal stabilizer and forward wing, pushing the nose up rather than the typical aerodynamic strategy which forces the tail down. Having the main wing spar located farther back allows for greater cabin space, and the T-tail increases stability. The overall design offers notably less vibration in the cabin.The Avanti runs on two Pratt &Whitney Canada PT6A-66 turboprop engines. The rear-orientation of the propellers eliminates the impact of propeller vortices from the wings. More recently, Piaggio has begun production of the Avanti II, with a basically identical cabin but including some performance updates. One such update is the new Pratt & Whitney PT6-66B engines, which increase cruise speed at high altitudes. The Avanti II also has increased maximum weight and better fuel economy.Both versions of the Avanti may be flown by a single pilot, but due to safety considerations, evoJets always employs two pilots. The Avanti features a standard three screen Collins EFIS flight deck, while the Avanti II has been updated with the Rockwell Collins ProLine 21 suite. |
