The company's facilities were rebuilt following the Second World War and several original designs, including the P.136 seaplane, the P.149 trainer aircraft, and the P.166 utility transport, were released during the first two decades of the postwar era.

[1] Originally, the company was involved in the outfitting of ocean liners and the manufacturing of rolling stock for the developing Italian railway infrastructure around the turn of the century.

From the financial gains that it had garnered from these industries, Rinaldo Piaggio was able to construct a large factory based in Finale Marina or Finalmarina during 1906.

Penga and Gabrielli worked together to create numerous technical solutions to aviation problems; to support their aerodynamic research, in 1928, Piaggio completed a new wind tunnel.

The company also benefited from an increased demand for basic aircraft training; during 1953, the German Air Force ordered 265 Piaggio P.149 trainers.

In the 1960s, both motorcycle and aeronautical production continued until 1964, the year in which the two divisions were officially split into two separate companies: aeronautical production continued with Armando (and later with Rinaldo, the founder's namesake grandson) in the Sestri Ponente plant under the name of Industrie Aeronautiche e Meccaniche Rinaldo Piaggio, while with Enrico Piaggio the Vespa was produced in the Pontedera plant.

In the years that followed, an increasingly large stake in the company was acquired by a group of entrepreneurs headed by the Josè Di Mase and Piero Ferrari.

Two years later, the Indian multinational conglomerate Tata Group acquired a one-third stake in Piaggio Aero Industries, becoming one of the primary shareholders alongside Piero Ferrari, the Di Mase family and the Mubadala Development Company.

[10] Instead of focusing on this declining market, Piaggio decided to orientate itself towards the special missions sector, developing the Piaggio-Selex P.1HH Hammerhead, an unmanned long-endurance intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance derivative of its P.180 Avanti.

The company's restructuring plan had failed less than a year after its owner, Mubadala, had injected €255 million and repurchased its bank debt.

According to two different decrees of the Italian Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy signed on 1 March 2023, the Group is now led by three Extraordinary Commissioners: the aforementioned Vincenzo Nicastro, Davide Rossetti (coordinator) and Carmelo Cosentino (industry and aviation expert).

Piaggio Aero also operates two additional service centers, one at Rome's Ciampino Airport and the other at the Pratica di Mare Air Base.

Operations include a maintenance center and two production areas, one for engines and sheet metal parts, another for major aircraft sub-assemblies and aero structures.

The High Technology Center is located in the Campania region of Italy, near Naples, focuses on aero structure design and systems research.

[citation needed] During the 2010s, Piaggio Aero constructed a new modern manufacturing facility in Villanova d'Albenga, about 70 kilometers west of Genoa.