The Flying lawnmower.

[mirrodie]

I know a lot of you, if you spend enough time at an airfield, can hear a plane and know the exact type before you even see it.


I'm not one of those guys.


But lately, I always know when the Piaggio Avanti is in town. That thing sounds liek a flying lawnmower/vibrator!




Pretty wild considering how quiet its claimed to be in the inside.

[mirrodie]

Will tell you one thing though....Look at that bitch go vertical! Love it ;)

[Woz]

That's funny. I always tell my kids, "wait, hear that? It's a flying lawnmower!" Never thought of the vibrator though. That's a good one to tell the wife :)

They seem to be in and out of Teterboro often.

[Derf]

Flying Catfish
Flying Ant Eater
The "ugly plane"

the pilots of these aircraft LOVE THEM....they hate the names for the aircraft tho

[Ychocky]

Very cool plane, there's one that buzzes around Ottawa.

[jerslice]

One of my favorite planes personally, really cool to look at and pretty nifty on the inside too. And I love that lawnmower sound, I can pick it out anywhere!

[threeholerglory]

they really are the most distinguished sound out there....having worked with them (line service for Avantair) in the past, i've had the pleasure of riding along on some taxi tests, max-power runups for mx etc...they really are silent inside since the engines are mounted so far aft, and the props are even behind the crapper.

[JDANDO]

Definitely a unique sound. I spoke to a pilot last weekend and he likened the sound to that of a "weed-wacker".

It is a unique looking plane, there are a couple angles it looks great and a couple that it looks like a bloated cat-fish

[Derf]

Our Local Catfish

[heeshung]

[moose135]

[mirrodie]

Its quiet on the inside but distinctly noisy on the outside.

But not ugly IMHO.


I recall reading a story MANY years ago about the P Avanti and how one pilot describes a US bomber flying up next to him just to get a closer look.

[hiss srq]

I always said it looks like a few Italian's got drunk in a hanger and built a King Air 350 backwards.

[mirrodie]

From http://www.avweb.com/avwebbiz/news/N..._202459-1.html

However, the configuration of the Avanti, according to a Wikipedia entry, results in the wing wake and engine exhaust hitting the props to create a square wave noise. The unscientific description offered by Alan Parker, chairman of the airport authority's technical committee, is that the Avanti is "irritating loud" with a high pitch he likens to fingernails on a chalk board.



Cool to read some physics behind the noise. So its a square wave of sound. Does that imply other Ac sounds are more sinusoidal?