Piaggio Planning New Ferrari Jet

At the European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva, Piaggio chief executive Alberto Galassi said plans are finally in place for a new Ferrari jet based on the Avanti. Piaggio, which is partly owned by Ferrari and is licensed to use the prancing horse logo, says its shareholders – Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala and the Tata Group – are committed to the project. However, details will not be released until the plane is actually ready to fly. In this Piaggio is following Ferrari’s lead rather than others in the aviation field who take orders based on mere renderings.

“Who wants to hear about a new airplane, take orders and then wait 10 years for delivery?” Galassi asked at EBACE. “You don’t see Ferrari announcing a new model and then spending years developing it. Ferrari designs the car, builds it and then launches it. I want us to be close to first flight and with the latest technology before we tell people about it.” He did reveal however that the jet will live up to the famous name: “I promise you one thing, this is a beautiful aeroplane. You would not expect anything more from Italian style and Ferrari. It costs the same to design an ugly aircraft as it does a beautiful one, so we have the beautiful one.” Sold.

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Tags: Ferrari, Piaggio

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 10:22 am and is filed under Aviation, Cars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.