Piaggio Aero Industries delivered a P.180 business aircraft to an unnamed US customer on 2 February. The event marks the first handover of the twin turboprop by the Italian manufacturer since 1998, when the former Rinaldo Piaggio was sold to an Italian/Turkish consortium. The new P.180,which has undergone a series of performance modifications, has been built with an aluminium-alloy vertical fin instead of the original carbonfibre structure, increasing the maximum speed from Mach 0.67 to M0.7. Genoa Sestri-based Piaggio is jointly owned by Italian families Buitoni, Di Mase and Ferrari, with a 75% stake; Turkey's Tushav, which holds a 17% share; and a group of undisclosed private investors.
Source: Flight International
