Piaggio Aero
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| Società per Azioni | |
| Founded | 1884 |
| Headquarters | Genoa, Italy |
| Website | www.piaggioaerospace.it |
Piaggio Aerospace, formerly Piaggio Aero Industries S.p.A., is a multinational aerospace manufacturing company headquartered in Genoa, Italy. Its origins date back to the former Rinaldo Piaggio S.p.A. company, making it one of the world's oldest airplane manufacturers. Piaggio Aero Industries was established in its current form in November 1998, when a group of shareholders headed by Piero Ferrari and Josè Di Mase acquired the assets of Rinaldo Piaggio.
Piaggio Aero Industries designs, develops, constructs and maintains aircraft, aero-engines and aircraft structural components. It has a subsidiary in the United States, Piaggio America, located at West Palm Beach, Florida.
Piaggio was founded in Genoa in 1884, originally outfitting ocean liners and manufacturing rolling stock for the developing railway infrastructure at the turn of the century. Due to financial gains in this industry, Rinaldo Piaggio was able to build a factory in 1906 in Final Marina. Today, the site of Piaggio's facility is in Finale Ligure, where Piaggio Aero began to manufacture aircraft and aircraft engines.
The 1920s served as an important time in the company's history when, Piaggio Aero brought on Giovanni Pegna and Giuseppe Gabrielli, two aeronautical engineers, to help develop Piaggio's aeronautic line. Together they created modern technical solutions for aviation, that brought forth the design and build of the world's first helicopter.
Senator Rinaldo Piaggio died in 1938, at 71 years old, thus ending the Rinaldo Piaggio era. When the battles of World War II left the company's facilities in ruins, it was Rinaldo's sons Enrico, inventor of the Vespa motor scooter, and Armando, who began the rebuilding process.
1948 was the year Piaggio launched the Piaggio P.136, a twin-engine seaplane, that was operated by the Italian Air Force, when liaison transport missions were needed. Due to the increase of basic aircraft training, the German Air Force ordered 265 Piaggio P.149 units in 1953. By 1957 Piaggio created the Piaggio P.166 light transport aircraft that was marketed and produced for the military and civilian personnel worldwide.
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