Piaggio Aerospace

Piaggio Aerospace traces back to 1884 in Genoa, spent six years under Italian government-appointed administration after the group collapsed in 2018, and passed to Turkey's Baykar on 30 June 2025, when the business units of Piaggio Aero Industries and Piaggio Aviation transferred into a new company named Baykar Piaggio Aerospace S.p.A. Two sites carry the work. The headquarters and production plant sit at Villanova d'Albenga in Liguria, with the customer service operation in Genoa, and the buyer committed to holding headcount at both and adding to it as output rises.

The aircraft business rests on one airframe with an unusual shape. The P.180 Avanti is a twin turboprop with a forward wing and pusher propellers, powered by a pair of Pratt and Whitney PT6A-66B engines rated at 850 shaft horsepower, and the company puts its top speed at 402 knots on roughly 40 per cent less fuel than comparable jets. The business version is the Avanti EVO. February 2026 brought a new identity, Avanti Next, and the Avanti NX as the next generation of the type, with a stated goal of lifting annual output from a handful of aircraft to between 20 and 25. The special missions variant was repositioned in March 2026 under the name Mantide, aimed at intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, maritime patrol and signals intelligence. Italian state orders carried the firm through administration, among them twelve aircraft brought up to Avanti II+ standard and a commitment to fifteen new EVO+ airframes.

The engine side is quieter and arguably steadier. Villanova d'Albenga makes parts, assembles and tests complete engines, and runs maintenance, repair and overhaul. Piaggio supplies components in several critical areas of the Pratt and Whitney F135 that powers the F-35, and works across the Pratt and Whitney Canada PW200 programme. It builds and assembles the Rolls-Royce Gem and Viper engines behind the A129 helicopter and the MB-339 trainer, and overhauls Honeywell, Pratt and Whitney Canada and Rolls-Royce types including the Viper 632 and the M250. Safran work covers the RTM322 and Aneto-1K flying on the NH90 and AW189K. Structural components and aerostructures round out the manufacturing, and the plant holds the European approvals that a job like this needs, covering design, production, maintenance and maintenance training.

Support and training close the picture. The company maintains the P.180 fleet operated by Italian public bodies, has doubled specialist staff at its Pratica di Mare maintenance centre near Rome from eight to sixteen, and is close to opening a spare parts warehouse in the United States. Lifecycle support and the Piaggio Aviation Academy handle sustainment and type training. Baykar has said it intends to build TB3 and Akinci unmanned aircraft in Italy and turn the sites into a European hub for airframe and engine maintenance, and it signed a memorandum with Leonardo in June 2025 covering a joint venture in unmanned aerial systems.