Italy's Piaggio Aero Industries is upgrading the flightdeck of its P180 Avanti twin pusher turboprop with Rockwell Collins ProLine avionics. A formal announcement is expected at next month's European Business Aviation Association convention in Geneva, Switzerland. Neither company will confirm the selection, but sources close to both parties say work on the first installation has begun.
Rockwell Collins fought off competition from Honeywell and Garmin with their respective Primus Epic and Garmin G1000 suites to replace the Avanti's outdated flightdeck, also supplied by Cedar Rapids-basedRockwell Collins.
The upgrade should help to bolster sales of the seven-seat aircraft and help it compete more effectively against new generation business jets, including the Bombardier Learjet 40 and Cessna Citation CJ3. Piaggio has orders for 32 Avantis and plans to increase production from 18 aircraft this year to 22 in 2005.
Source: Flight International
