[QUOTE]It's a UAV based on a pax aircraft, not an unmanned pax aircraft.[/QUOTE

I know. I've got about a thousand hours in the manned version, and it's not much of a stretch to go to the next step of automating the pilot function.

A bigger question will be the noise issue; the Piaggio Avanti makes an unusuall, distinctive, annoying sound, and is not particularly stealthy. While a number of UAS out there sound more like flying chain saws than a hollywood-quiet winged wonder, the Piaggio has the huey-like quality of advertising it's existence to people in surrounding provinces, let alone in the area directly beneath the aircraft (even at idle). Idle vertical profiles, useful with certain other platforms, may not be nearly as effective here. There's a lot of noise ISR out there (I've flown some of it), but the Piaggio's chief virtues are it's large cabin, low passenger noise (much quieter in than out), and ability to go high (FL410) and fast for a turboprop. None of those are germane to the majority of ISR work.