Piaggio Aero Industries delivered the first P180 (S/N 1034) assembled with an aluminium alloy vertical fin and canard instead of carbon fibre on February 2, 2000 at Palm Springs airport, California. The modification is said to allow an increase in the maximum operation speed from Mach 0.67 to 0.70 while all other aircraft features are unchanged.\rAt NBAA 1999, Mr Piero Ferrari, chairman, announced the company's commitment to relaunching the P180 in the USA. 15 will be assembled in 2000, 22 in 2001 and 26 in 2002. Piaggio says that delivery of two P180s to the Greek Ministry of Health and one to a private Italian customer is imminent. The first will be received by the Greek government by March, Piaggio says.