Light · ICAO P148

Piaggio P-148

The Piaggio P.148 was a 1950s Italian primary and aerobatic trainer, an all-metal low-wing monoplane with fixed tailwheel gear that first flew on 12 February 1951 powered by a 190hp Lycoming flat-six. The Italian Air Force ordered it into production for its primary flying schools and operated around 70 examples from 1951 to 1979, with a break in the 1960s when an all-jet training syllabus briefly replaced piston primary trainers before the P.148 was reinstated in 1970 for pilot-selection work. Some retired airframes were later sold to the Somali Air Corps. Its enlarged four-seat derivative, the P.149, proved considerably more successful commercially.

Piaggio P-148, example photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Aldo Bidini · GFDL 1.2 · Wikimedia Commons

Did you know?

A 1950s Italian primary trainer briefly shelved when the Air Force switched to an all-jet syllabus, later restored for pilot selection.

Specifications

Length8.4 m (28 ft)
Wingspan11.1 m (36 ft)
Height2.4 m (8 ft)
Persons on board3
Maximum take-off weight1.2 t
Range500 NM (926 km)
Service ceiling16,500 ft (5,029 m)
Optimum ceiling12,000 ft (3,658 m)
Rate of climb900 ft/min (4.6 m/s)

Curated by CatchFlights from manufacturer documents, ICAO Doc 8643 and reference works; values are left out where no source could confirm them. Sources are listed on our credits page.

In CatchFlights

In CatchFlights the Piaggio P-148 starts as a Rare catch. The tier is an editorial judgement of how special a sighting of this type is. The more often you catch it, the closer it moves to Common for you.

A catch counts for the manufacturer Piaggio, the P-148 family and the model in your collection, and the daily Type Rating quiz asks about the types of each family.

Catch it yourself.CatchFlights shows the aircraft flying near you on a radar, so a type like this one is only a catch away when it passes overhead. Explore CatchFlights.

Browse all aircraft types, or learn to tell Airbus from Boeing.

Download

Catch what flies overhead

CatchFlights is free on the App Store for iPhone. On Android it is in closed testing on Google Play — join the testers and help shape the game.

iPhone · Android (beta)