Pilatus Aircraft Enthusiates

Pilatus Aircraft Limited, based at Stans, in Switzerland, has a proud history of building quality aircraft. The company was formed in 1939, and rolled out its first aircraft in 1945. From that time until quite recently, the company was best known for its remarkable training aircraft, the P-2, P-3, PC-7 and PC-9, although it also had remarkable success with the PC-6 Porter. The PC-6 production line was terminated in 2000, but continuing demand has seen the aircraft put back into production once again. An all-new trainer, the PC-21 is currently (2005) undergoing developmental flight trials at the factory.

However the product for which the Pilatus company is currently best known is undoubtedly the mighty PC-12, the aircraft which is revolutionising the aeromedical, police and business aircraft market segments. Over 700 PC-12s have been delivered world-wide as at the beginning of 2007. The PC-12's unique combination of safety, comfort, versatility and cost-effectiveness is greatly appreciated by a growing number of corporate and private operators around the world, the aircraft performs heavy duty transport with many utility operators like the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (19 aircraft) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (13 aircraft). For the General Aviation community, the PC-12 is undoubtedly the queen of the skies.

Up until the advent of the PC-12, the undisputed King of General Aviation was the Beech B200 King Air, so it should be no surprise that the PC-12 was designed to be generally similar in size and performance to that aircraft. But the similarity ends there. The PC-12 was designed from a clean sheet of paper, an initially very expensive luxury compared with developing a new model of an existing aircraft.

The first lesson to be incorporated was that two engines are no longer necessary. This lesson had been well demonstrated by the Pilatus PC-6, PC-7 and PC-9 in primarily military operations. The accident record demonstrates convincingly that two engines are simply not necessary for the majority if not all general aviation operations. On the other hand, a modern turbine engine like the Pratt & Whitney PT6A-67B costs rather a lot to operate and overhaul. Pilatus argued, successfully, that it makes no sense to carry around a spare engine, with the resultant loss of payload and massively increased costs. The decision was taken that the PC-12 should have a single engine.

The next area to be defined was cabin size and layout. The PC-12 designers decided to add extra width to the cabin, making it far more spacious, comfortable and versatile than any of its competitors. Similarly most of its competitors used only a single, rear mounted door for entry and exit. Pilatus designed into the PC-12 from the outset a forward air stair door for the passengers, and a huge cargo door at the rear to allow loading of cargo by forklift. To facilitate freight loading and unloading, the cabin received a completely flat floor and a constant cross section, with no interior bulkheads aft of the cockpit divider. The PC-12 cabin is the undisputed leader in the field by a very wide margin.

Accessibility was another characteristic designed into the PC-12, by which we mean the ability to routinely access short dirt strips. The aircraft has a high lift wing, augmented by huge Fowler flaps, which give the aircraft a stalling speed of just 64 KIAS at maximum take-off weight. This gives the PC-12 a 450 meter take-off ground run at maximum take-off weight at sea level and ISA conditions. The landing is even more impressive, with an 84 KIAS approach speed and 293 metre landing ground roll at maximum take-off weight at sea level and ISA conditions.

The cost of maintenance was another major consideration. Pilatus recognised that the cost of maintenance labour had risen considerably since most of the PC-12s competitors were designed, and that it would continue to rise. Consequently, it paid close attention to ensuring that routine maintenance operations were made as simple and time efficient as it could. One example of this is that almost all of the inspection hatches around the aircraft can be opened without tools, making inspections less time consuming than would otherwise be the case. This pays dividends during both routine servicing and maintenance.

Finally, Pilatus was able to incorporate a multitude of systems designed to reduce the workload of the pilot and to significantly improve safety. Thus the PC-12 has a number of these safety features incorporated. The most common form of human factors accident, and the one that constitutes by far the greatest risk to passengers, is Controlled Flight Into Terrain 0 (CFIT), where a serviceable aircraft is accidentally flown into the ground. So to cater for the situation where despite the low workload, the pilot still allows the aircraft to fly into the ground, the world s leading regulatory authority, the US FAA, introduced a new requirement (FAR Part 23, Amendment 36) for new aircraft designs to incorporate drastically improved crashworthiness standards. The PC-12 incorporates these standards, making it one of the safest aircraft in General Aviation.

The PC-12 is a pressurised single turbine powered by a Pratt & Whitney PT6A-67B turboprop engine utility aircraft, which is as much at home operating at 30,000 feet and 250 knots as it is taking off from or landing on a very short dirt runways. It has the range to fly six passengers the width of Australia non-stop with several hours of fuel remaining, or the ability to fly one and a half tonnes of cargo over 400 nautical miles with IFR reserves. Maximum certificated passenger capacity is nine in the airline configuration, or eight in the optional executive configuration. The aircraft is unique in its class in that it has both a forward air stair door for passengers and a powered rear cargo door. It is also, quite simply, the most cost-effective new turbine powered aircraft in General Aviation today.

Building the PC-12 was quite a gamble by Pilatus Aircraft Limited, because throughout the design stage, the use of single turbine engined aircraft for passenger carrying commercial operations at night or under the IFR were not permitted. However, their belief in the single engine concept has been thoroughly vindicated by the commercial success of the aircraft and by the worldâs leading regulatory authorities, including Canada, Australia, the USA, New Zealand and others now allowing such operations as routine, and Europe expected to soon follow suit

In just 10 years of production, Pilatus Aircraft marked a major PC-12 program milestone ( Jan 2005 ) by commemorating the delivery of the 500th copy of the popular single-engine business turboprop. Companies and individuals are discovering that the PC-12 is one of the best business aircraft available to operate in nearly any economic condition.

Pilatus Aircraft Ltd is pleased to announce a two major program milestone ( March 2007 ) by celebrating the delivery of its 700th PC-12 and been the top selling turbine-powered business aircraft for the past four ( 2003 - 2006 ) years in a row with 90 PC-12's delivered worldwide in 2006.

A large number of companies and individuals have come to realize that no other aircraft on the market achieves the PC-12 combination of performance, utility, comfort, large-cabin aircraft. Because of its high capability and low cost, PC-12 owners enjoy a unique competitive advantage when it comes to business travel.

Pilatus Aircraft Limited works hard to comtinuously improve its products, and as part of that effort plans to introduce the Next Generation PC-12 towards the end of 2007.