An unusual plane

[Barb-SAN]

I was out "plane-spotting" and photographing planes coming in to SAN this afternoon, and was really startled by this one. It looks like the design (in the front) was inspired by a hammerhead shark...the wings are WAY back, and the propellers are in an odd spot too. I looked up the plane's N-number on Google, and found that it is a 2002 Piaggio P 180 Avanti. Here's the Wikipedia link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaggio_P180_Avanti

I'm still trying to understand the aerodynamics (and weight and balance)...supposedly the fuselage provides 20% of the lift.
I wonder if this is a design that will catch on?

"The company claims the overall design of the P.180 Avanti II enables the wing to be 34% smaller than on conventional aircraft and a specific range of 0.84 nmi (http://www.takingflight.us/wiki/Nautical_mile)/lb (http://www.takingflight.us/wiki/Pound_(mass)#International_pound) of fuel.[3] (http://www.takingflight.us/forums/#cite_note-2) This is significantly better than the 0.31-0.48 nmi/pound of similar small jets."

See also Wikipedia link for Avantair... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avantair

[Rebecca]

Leave it to the Italians!!! :lol:

[MathFox]

The design with the horizontal stabilizer in front of the wings is called "Canard" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canard_(aeronautics) (http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canard_%28aeronautics%29). It is a classic design, already used by the Wright Brothers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyer

In a Canard the centre of gravity is before the main wing, so the canard has to provide lift to keep the plane horizontal. One can use the canard for pitch control (rotating it for trim) or add elevators to the main wing. If you put a control surface at the trailing edge of the canard it will work in the opposite direction of an elevator at a conventional tail.

[Barb-SAN]

Thanks, MathFox. I see from the links you posted that there are already a lot of planes that have a canard. Now, about those "backwards" propellers...;) ...any other planes out there that combine those two design elements?

Here's another photo of the same plane...you can see that there are control surfaces deflected on the canard (and the flaps are down on the wings). I don't SEE anything deflected on the T-tail, though it looks like there's a rudder (there better be!) (hinge is just to the right of the letter "N").

[Barb-SAN]

Here's a close-up of the tail...it looks like there might be elevators here too (?), but they do not appear to be deflected.

[MathFox]

What you see on the canard are flaps I guess, to counteract the pitch-down moment of the flaps on the main wing.

If you go back to the Wright Flyer you'll see a Canard with push-propellers... but that one certainly didn't reach jet speeds.
The combination of a canard with a traditional horizontal stabiliser is rare. Most likely done to improve pitch stability.

[CAflyer]

Yeah I have made ads to sell these planes, they are really weird! Piaggio makes scooters too I believe.